M5s, this is what is happening between Conte and Grillo

'These statements are completely incompatible with the obligations you specifically assumed towards the Movement with reference to both the malleveria and the advertising and communication contracts: this obliges me to evaluate possible initiatives aimed at suspending the performance of the services to be paid by the Movement deriving from the malleveria, and the withdrawal from the advertising and communication contracts'. This is what the M5s leader wrote in the letter to the guarantor Beppe Grillo published by corriere.it. We are talking, among other things, about the 300 thousand euro compensation to Grillo for his unspecified communication activities

"I would like to point out to you that your repeated public utterances are accrediting in the eyes of public opinion a 'dominical' conception of the Movement, considering that a single person - however deserving a 'founder' - claims to compress deliberative confrontation within the association, blatantly opposing the fundamental value that inspired the birth and development of the Movement itself: the democratic principle and the free participation of citizens in decision-making processes. This conduct of yours, which is fuelling public debate with related hints of future legal disputes and potential splits, risks tarnishing the energy and enthusiasm that this constituent process is unleashing, with the result of compromising the efforts that an entire community is making to relaunch - with strength and decision - the Movement's political action, involving even those sympathisers who are not yet members,' the missive goes on to say.

In his letter, Conte reproached Grillo for the 'serious inaccuracies' contained in his note of 5 September, as well as 'obvious distortions regarding the role and powers of the Guarantor'. And this is because 'the guardianship of the fundamental values of the movement's political action and the power of authentic interpretation, which cannot be reviewed, of the statutory norms', are resolved 'in a moral suasion, but certainly do not extend to the exercise of a supposed right of veto or even to the inhibition of assembly consultation on one or more issues in the life of the Movement. An insuperable obstacle to this view is the democratic principle on which every exercise of political associative activity is based'. For Conte, the latter is 'a fundamental principle of our legal system - regardless of specific statutory provisions - which applies to all associative bodies, even more so to political associations, and which attributes 'sovereign' power to the assembly of members,' he continues. According to Conte's statute, 'no preclusion can be imposed on the deliberative power of the assembly on any of the issues mentioned above (from the founding principles of the 5 Star Movement, to the symbol, to the name, ed.), nor can your power of veto, as you write, extend generically to "further issues that may emerge and/or result from the outcome of the consultation among the members,"' he concludes.

'A necessary letter, in tone and manner, to protect the 5 Star Movement community from a warning aimed at sabotaging the constituent process and gagging free debate in our community'. This is how 5S sources speak of the letter from Giuseppe Conte to the guarantor Beppe Grillo , published in the course of the afternoon in various press organs.

Sources close to Grillo on Sunday had anticipated the news of the 'private letter' sent by Conte, whose tone would have been 'bordering on blackmail'. An initiative that would have 'extremely annoyed'. The distances between the two are certainly nothing new but the tension continues to rise. The guarantor, often accused of behaving like 'a master father', overturns the charge: Conte's openness to the wide field sanctioned by the 'beer pact' with the leader of the PD Elly Schlein and the leaders of the Avs is in the crosshairs. The political line should be shared: 'why are these choices not decided at the Constituent Assembly? And is the 5 Star Community excluded?", Grillo questions his interlocutors. Nor would the decision to convene the Constituent Assembly, let alone its path, serve to revive the internal debate. Because Conte - is Grillo's thesis - wants to make himself 'his own party'. Heavy words, 'externals and attempts' that 'delegitimise the assembly of the members' and 'contrast with the specific contractual obligations that the Guarantor has signed with the M5S for what concerns malleverity and communication consultancy', make Movement sources clear.