Conte who states that the double mandate rule “is not a diktat”, Grillo who threatens to leave. Then the distances, almost abysmal, on the Parliamentary elections and on the symbol of the 5-Star Movement, on communication, on the powers of the guarantor, on alliances. It seems like yesterday, in the literal sense of the term, but the argument dates back to July 2022, in the midst of the electoral campaign for the policies. One of the highest points of the frictions between the two leaders of the 5-Star Movement who, during their long collaboration (born during consultations in 2018 when the lawyer and professor moved from the probable position of Minister of Public Administration to the more coveted and unexpected one of Prime Minister), has registered many. As have been the many opportunities to get closer together: one above all the restorative lunch in Marina di Bibbiona, later renamed «the sea bass pact».
But the Tuscan sea, like the many face-to-face meetings between Grillo and Conte – almost all of which take place at the Hotel Forum, the guarantor’s headquarters when he comes to Rome – never completely take away the animosity and shadows between the two. You don’t have to go back too far in your memory to see them on the verge of a split that in the last few hours seems increasingly inevitable. Just rewind the tape another year – to the end of June 2021 – to find a new scratch in the relationship between the two. The object of contention is the refresh of the M5S Statute requested from Conte. “We told him to take it and make it evolve. Instead, he took two lawyers and wrote something else,” thundered Grillo before listing a whopping 30 observations on Conte’s proposal. Of course, in that draft, particular weight must have been given to the passage that limited the powers of the guarantor, or rather of Grillo himself, eliminating the article that provided for Grillo’s de facto irremovability and the power of authentic, non-questionable interpretation of the rules. Erasing the designation of the guarantor as “guardian of the fundamental values of the association’s political action”. Coincidentally, this is the definition with which Grillo signed the last post against Conte. It seems like centuries have passed when Grillo rejoiced in greeting the first five-star prime minister, saying that in him “there is no trace of the compulsive caricature of the vast majority of his predecessors”.
More recent, however, is the attack he made last November on prime time with Fabio Fazio when he said that the people’s lawyer “was chosen because he was perfect, given that when he spoke, little was understood”. A sweetened copy of a harsh attack via blog (June 2021) with which Grillo ruled on Conte: «He cannot solve the problems, he does not have the political vision». The defeat in the European elections, then, certainly did not help to mend relations between the two, increasingly general, opposed to each other with their own troops. The latest incursion was that of 11 former 5-Star parliamentarians who – under the banner of the Guarantor – asked Conte to assume «his responsibilities», given that he is to blame for the «collapse» of the movement. “Ingratitude – they write quoting Descartes – is a mixture of selfishness, pride and stupidity”. And that would be enough. But in that letter from early August the 11 exes asked the “forgetful people of Collegno” on duty, “without art or part” to “demonstrate respect and gratitude” also defining “the idea of a constituent assembly to put the former movement back on track” as “the practices of the old parties that wanted to retire”. Finally there is the news of the last 48 hours that between blogs (by Grillo) and notes (by Conte) seem to determine, this time yes, a fracture that cannot be mended with an ever closer split in the Movement.