The 5 Star Movement “has been completely turned upside down. Change is necessary, but upheaval without evaluating its effects and respecting the identity and history of those who are changing is often pure chaos and narcissistic protagonism.” This is what a group of eleven former M5S parliamentarians wrote in a highly critical letter against the president of the Movement, Giuseppe Conte.
“Beppe Grillo has certainly made mistakes – write the former members of the Five Star Movement – but he gave his all to create the only true innovation capable of bringing back enthusiasm towards politics. To unload all the blame for the difficulties of the former movement on Grillo is absolutely incorrect, as is to affirm that the guarantor sought a restricted meeting of a few trusted sycophants to change the rules of the movement itself”.
The letter is signed by Nicola Morra, Elio Lannutti, Alessio Villarosa, Rosa Silvana Abate, Ehm Yana Chiara, Jessica Costanzo, Emanuele Dessì, Michele Sodano, Simona Suriano, Raffaele Trano and Andrea Vallascas. The agency revealed its content Adnkronos.
The intervention of the eleven comes about a week after the fiery exchange of letters between Conte and Grillo published on the Five Star website. The tension between the president and the guarantor of the Movement – latent for three years now – has flared up again after the disappointing result of the M5S in the European elections in June.
Grillo had commented on the vote with venomous jokes aimed at Conte (“Berlusconi got more votes dead than he did alive”), while the former prime minister had reacted to the electoral defeat by announcing a constituent process within the Five Star Movement.
In recent days, friction between the two has flared up in a harsh exchange of letters. Grillo wrote to Conte criticizing the operation of the constituent assembly (“We should at least discuss it first) and asserting his role as “guardian of the values of the Movement”. The president’s reply arrived shortly after, determined to continue on: “We must face the current political parable of the Movement with courage and determination, without dwelling on a past that will not return”, is Conte’s line.
In the debate between the two, today the intervention of the eleven former M5S parliamentarians comes into play, who affirm that they only want to “contribute to restoring the historical, factual and then also political truth”
“Conte’s letter in response to Grillo – they write – has deeply affected many of us for its manner, as well as its content. This grotesque “clash” between the two ‘leaders’ of a movement that was supposed to be ‘leaderless’ is exactly what the establishment wanted: a weakened and divided 5 Star Movement, having failed in its project of cultural revolution, increasingly unknowingly an instrument of the system”.
“The idea of a constituent assembly to put the former movement, now party, back on track – the M5S defectors continue – echoes the practices of the old parties that wanted to retire. Is this the destiny of the M5S? What do they want to ‘constitute’? Transform into a clone of the PD by adopting the same logic and methods of traditional politics that has devastated Italy in recent decades, taking away the present as well as the future from all of us?”.
The eleven signatories of the letter recall that in 2011, in addition to Grillo, Conte also sided in favor of supporting the Draghi Government, a choice that today Conte – in his letter – seems to want to attribute to Grillo’s will.
“Everyone should take responsibility for their own actions,” ask the former elected officials. “Today, those who apologize to members forget about some, the expelled, who paid a very high price for having remained faithful to the principles and excluded because they were inconveniently heretical. Late apologies do not erase the responsibilities of those who preferred power to service.”
“How can a leader who led the Movement from 32.7% to 9.99% not take the slightest blame for this collapse? It seems to be felt that “Everyone is responsible except me!!!”, they attack.
“Anyone who knows Beppe – we read further in the letter – knows that he asked for the usual confrontation, as has always been done over the years, with all, we repeat all, the elected officials in Rome, because if they are there, to some extent he too is involved, the Guarantor”.
“The crisis of consensus – the former M5S claim – does not derive from the lack of change. On the contrary, the Movement has changed radically in recent years, so much so that it closely resembles what it was supposed to fight, and this has generated doubts and confusion among voters”.
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