M5s, Grillo's aut aut aut: 'In October you will be at a crossroads, forced to choose'. The Movement: 'Sovereign Assembly'

With a post on Instagram, the founder of the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, launches an aut aut aut aut to Giuseppe Conte: 'By now it is clear as day: in October you will find yourselves at a crossroads, forced to choose between two opposing visions of what the 5 Star Movement should be,' reads the post. The first is of a politics that comes from below, and not from professional politicians, the second is that of Giuseppe Conte'.

"The MoVimento, as you know, was born from the idea that Gianroberto and I had of creating a different political force, an alternative to the traditional parties, by now encrusted with decades of zombie politicians, more attentive to their own interests than to those of the citizens they are supposed to represent. We knew from the beginning,' Grillo emphasises, 'that the danger of falling into the same trap hangs over every political force, because every representative inevitably tends to put himself at the centre, sacrificing the collective interest. It is a story as old as the world: for centuries communities have been trying to find rules to stem this drift.

There are no perfect rules,' Grillo continues, 'but it is clear that conflicts of interest are exacerbated when representatives lock themselves in their privileges and refuse to leave space for others. It is a behaviour dictated by natural human selfishness, ingrained and difficult to eradicate. Precisely for this reason, Gianroberto and I realised that, in order to create a model different from the traditional parties, we had to establish some fundamental, inviolable rules'.

"For this reason," continues the founder of the Five Star Movement, "when we speak of founding principles, we are talking about non-negotiable principles, principles that, if they are shattered, collapse the foundations of a house that brick by brick we have built together with you over all these years. To date, it does not seem to me that we are carrying out a work of renewal, but a work of demolition, to build something totally new, which has nothing to do with the 5 Star Movement. On 20 August I published a post on my blog entitled 'Our DNA' in which I called for the preservation of the symbol, the name, and the rule of the second mandate, the founding principles of the 5 Star Movement,' Grillo concluded.

Alfonso Colucci, who acts as the Movement's control body with the task of overseeing compliance with the law, this Statute, the Regulations and the resolutions of the association's bodies, replied in a tight turn. "The power of authentic interpretation of the rules of the Statute of the 5 Star Movement, claimed by the guarantor Beppe Grillo in a post published today, gives rise to a mere recommendation: it is moral suasion and is devoid of any legal effectiveness," he points out. 'If we gave a different interpretation of his powers, it would be contrary to positive law, because it would configure a power of a masterly and feudal nature, which contrasts with a fundamental principle: the assembly is sovereign, as in any association', adds Colucci, according to whom 'even the second power of guardian of values is technically resolved in the sole possibility of requesting the repetition of the vote of the members'. In short, Grillo cannot stop the votes of the members or contest the outcome: 'Absolutely not, the assembly is sovereign, and all these provisions concerning the powers of the Guarantor are modifiable by the assembly itself,' the M5S deputy continues. Even in the discussion with the supervisory commission on party statutes, the latter 'has expressly said that any decisions of the guarantor have no effect on the judge, in deference to the principle of democracy,' concludes Colucci, who dedicates a final blow to Grillo: 'His contradiction lies in the fact that on the one hand he says he is fighting oligarchies and on the other he says that the assembly cannot deliberate. This is oligarchy, contrary to democracy'.