M5s tensions, a meeting between Grillo and Di Battista hovers

Those who expected calm after the storm were wrong. The Five Star Movement, despite an underground work of some willing bridge-builders trying to extinguish the August fire sparked by the exchange of "courtesies" between founder Beppe Grillo and President Giuseppe Conte, has also in the last few hours registered a new battleground: the ownership of the name and symbol.

In all this, the rumour of a possible meeting between the Guarantor and former dauphin Alessandro Di Battista is becoming more and more insistent, which, if it were to take place, would send a clear message - and not one of peace - to Conte. More than the 'if', it is the 'where' and 'when' that many - within the Movement itself - are asking themselves. And an opportunity may already be in sight, thanks to the activist's tour that is presenting his book 'Inconvenient Truths' around Italy.

Of the Grillo-Di Battista meeting 'there was talk'. But 'Il Tempo wrote it, which as you know is a newspaper belonging to Angelucci of the League. What the political newspapers write leaves time to find'. Thus Di Battista, speaking on the evening of Friday 23 August in Riva Ligure (Imperia) to present the book 'Scomode verità. Dalla guerra in Ucraina al massacro di Gaza' (From the war in Ukraine to the Gaza massacre), responded to the rumour of Grillo's possible participation in the evening. There is talk of your rapprochement with Grillo, he was asked: 'There is talk,' he replied, 'Il Tempo always writes about it...'. And on the possible split between Grillo and Conte and the dispute over the party symbol, Di Battista went no further: '5 Star Movement business, I have not been part of it for three years'. He also ruled out a return to politics: 'You can also do politics from the outside. I don't know why they cyclically bring up newspapers that have zero credibility. Frankly, I don't waste any more time.

These are all non-distracting elements in already stressed relationships. And in view of a possible divorce, they are already thinking about the division of assets. Lorenzo Borrè, the dissidents' lawyer, was the first to throw a stone into the pond: who does the current 5s symbol belong to? 'The original symbol,' he explained to Repubblica, 'belongs to Grillo, who is also the sole owner of the right to use the name '5 Star Movement''. Borrè also cited a 2021 ruling by the Genoa Court of Appeal. To those who, on Conte's side, say that this is not true, he clarified: 'The current logo belongs to the association of the former premier, but it is a direct derivation of Beppe's' and 'if Conte's party decided to use the name and symbol against his will he could obtain an injunction, with a fine for each violation'. Alfonso Colucci, MP and notary public as well as coordinator of the Movement's legal area, thundered from the columns of the Corsera. "Both the name and the symbol are registered in the name of the current association,' he stressed, 'and Beppe Grillo, by virtue of specific contractual obligations - which are covered by confidentiality and do not refer to the €300,000 contract for communication that the M5S pays him every year - has expressly renounced any dispute concerning the use of both the name and the symbol of the M5S, as modified or modifiable in the future by the association itself. But Colucci is confident of a settlement: 'I think that a synthesis can be found from an albeit heated exchange of views'.

He extended the talk of 'peace' to the entire 'package-Movement' Stefano Patuanelli, leader of the M5s group in the Senate, certain that there is no reason 'to fear a split. Splits in a community,' he clarified in an interview with Sole 24 Ore, 'happen when there are parties that are not listened to. If you decide, as we have decided, to start a constituent process,' he added, 'the members must be able to discuss everything. It won't be me, it won't be Conte or anyone else in the ruling class who will impose the topics, but neither will it be anyone else who will limit them'.