Chaos in Italy

Conte: Comedian launches “extreme attempt at sabotage”

Beppe Grillo, founder of the EU-critical Five Star Movement. Archive image from 2018.

(Bild: ANSA)

Italy's left-wing populist Five Star Movement, the country's second-strongest opposition party, is in chaos.

Party founder and comedian Beppe Grillo has called for a re-run of a vote at last weekend's party convention that stripped him of his leading role as "guarantor" of the party. Grillo (76) had a contract as a communications consultant worth 300,000 euros a year, which was revoked.

The party members voted last weekend to abolish the role of "guarantor", which Grillo held as founder of the group in 2009. They also voted in favor of abolishing the rule according to which parliamentarians in the grouping can remain in office for a maximum of two mandates.

Dispute between Grillo and party leader Conte
The split is the result of an ongoing dispute between Grillo and party leader Giuseppe Conte, who has led the grouping since 2021 and gradually transformed the former anti-establishment movement into a more left-wing force.

"Grillo has just launched an extreme attempt at sabotage: he has called for a new vote, invoking an old clause still upheld by the old statute. In short, he has switched from direct democracy to the motto: ́I'm in charge here, and if the majority votes against me, it doesn't count,́" criticized party leader Conte, who was Italy's head of government between 2018 and 2021.

New vote expected
Conte declared that he would not object to Grillo's call for a new vote. It is therefore to be expected that the party members will vote again on Grillo's guarantor role. It is still unclear when this will take place.

Following the poor result in the EU elections in June, in which the Five Star Movement received less than ten percent of the vote, Conte called a party convention to revive the group. Grillo had recently accused Conte of lacking political vision and criticized his strategy, which the comedian sees as an attempt to transform the former anti-establishment party into a traditional left-wing force.

The proposal to ban alliances with other parties was rejected at the party convention on Sunday. This could lead to a permanent alliance between the Five Star Movement and Italy's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD). This could strengthen the opposition to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition in elections.