Italy's left-wing populists: The five stars get new meanings

After months of dispute over the leadership and future direction of the left-wing populist five-star movement, the former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte presented the party's new statute and emblem.

The dispute between Conte and the movement's founder, television comedian Beppe Grillo, was at times so intense that a split seemed inevitable.

Last week, however, Conte and Grillo reconciled.

The registered supporters of the movement, which has been the strongest force in parliament since the election in March 2018 and holds key cabinet positions in what is now the third coalition government in a row, are due to vote on the new statute via the Internet from August 2 to 6. The 56-year-old law professor Conte, who led two coalition governments from June 2018 to January 2021 - first with the right-wing national Lega and then with the Social Democrats - said in a video published on Facebook: “In the statute you will find what I use as a basis for the revival of our common action. "

If the new statute is accepted by the members, a new party leader will be elected shortly thereafter.

The only candidate is Conte, who is not yet formally a member of the five stars.

The adoption of the statute and the election of Conte as party leader are considered likely.

Like a "domineering godfather"

As usual, Grillo, the “guarantor” of the five-star movement, single-handedly carried out the nomination of Contes as a candidate for the top position in the party. According to the new statute, the five-star movement will in future be run like a traditional party - with its seat in Rome - and no longer like a decentralized grassroots movement. The party leader and other top officials are elected for a four-year term, with the option of re-election for a second term. However, the office of the 73-year-old “guarantor” Beppe Grillo remains indefinitely.

In contrast, the party leader will be solely responsible for the political leadership and programmatic orientation of the movement in the future. The dispute over the distribution of competencies between the party leader and the "guarantor" was the main reason for the serious rift between the two most important leaders of the movement. Grillo had accused Conte of not understanding the history of the movement, of having no vision for the future for Italy and no management skills. For his part, Conte accused Grillo of governing the movement he founded like a “domineering godfather” instead of a “generous father”.

In the statute drawn up by Conte, the five stars are given new meanings in the name of the movement.

In the future, they will stand for common goods, integral ecology, social justice, technological innovation and an eco-social market economy.

So far, the stars have symbolized water as a common good, environmental protection, sustainable mobility, development and connectivity.

In the slightly different emblem of the movement, the number 2050 is the target point for the climate-neutral restructuring of the Italian economy by the middle of the century.

The way to the center is followed in the program

The new statute expressly forbids the use of insulting expressions and insults in political disputes. In terms of content, Conte also wants to move the party into the political center. This is a programmatic implementation of what the left-wing populist movement has been practicing since its election victory in 2018 as a ruling party in coalitions with the once hated representatives of the political-economic establishment - first with the Lega and later with the Social Democrats.

In the video from Saturday evening, Conte was extremely conciliatory towards Grillo: “We were launched by Beppe Grillo twelve years ago, and three years ago we were elected the strongest political force in the parliamentary elections. As a result, we have already achieved a lot and kept many promises. In one thing we are still very different from all the other parties: We focus on the citizens. "After a difficult six months, the movement must now" become a unit again, "demanded Conte Have lost confidence in a better future. "

The current Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet had made his post as political leader of the Five Star Movement available after a series of severe defeats for the party in regional and local elections in January 2020. Since then, the party has been provisionally led by Senator Vito Crimi. In the March 2018 election, the five stars triumphed with around 33 percent of the vote, and in the latest polls they stand at 15 percent. You represent the largest parliamentary group in both chambers of parliament and are the most important pillar of the broad coalition of Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

In the past few days, Conte had repeatedly reiterated his resistance to the judicial reform initiated by Justice Minister Marta Cartabia, which is primarily intended to accelerate criminal and civil processes. "We are also in favor of faster legal proceedings," said Conte in his video on Saturday. "But we will not accept that there should be thresholds for impunity and thus prevent justice for victims of crime." Draghi received his immediate predecessor, Conte, for the first time in his office on Monday to discuss this question. Draghi had previously announced that he would, if necessary, ask a vote of confidence in the dispute over judicial reform in order to enforce coalition discipline.