When Luigi Di Maio heard that even Roberto Fico, his lifelong battle mate, was attacking him head-on, describing him as a “mystifier”, it was clear to him that his history with the 5-star Movement was really over. A few minutes after Fico’s release, the parliamentarians who remained loyal to Di Maio hammered him with messages: “You can’t stay inside this Movement anymore.” Di Maio invites them to calm down. We must proceed one step at a time: “First we will vote on the resolution that will secure the government.” And then? “Then the time for reflection will come.” The answer sounds like goodbye. Everyone knows he doesn’t need any more time to think about it. He just has to take courage and take the decisive step. Maybe, already tonight.
On the Foreign Minister’s social pages there is no longer any trace of his belonging to the Five Stars. This is also why Giuseppe Conte is convinced that his archenemy “will leave by the end of the week”. Among those who will follow him there could be heavy names, such as that of the Deputy Minister of Economy Laura Castelli, the President of the EU Commission Sergio Battelli or the Undersecretary for the South Dalila Nesci. And if a piece of the M5S government team is stripped of the flesh, will Conte ask for a reshuffle? The parliamentarians close to the foreign minister are calm: “Nothing will happen,” they assure. Conte’s leadership, in their eyes, is already too weak. They are convinced that he will have to worry about keeping what remains of the party together and keeping Beppe Grillo at bay, who will be in Rome on Thursday and – as anticipated by The print – is furious with Conte and his vice presidents: “If we go on like this we biodegrade in record time,” he told some parliamentarians. For the Guarantor, in fact, Di Maio was to be ignored and not attacked: “It was a gigantic tactical and communication error”.
The latest sign of Conte’s internal weakness comes precisely from the National Council, which was to be his fort and the symbol of a Movement that is moving compactly against the holder of the Farnesina. Yesterday morning, on the other hand, the Council published after a river meeting a note stigmatizing Di Maio’s words: “Untrue and disrespectful externations, likely to throw serious discredit”, we read. The Dimaian parliamentarians take it with irony: “Conte wants to go back to the old Grillina radicalism, but with this language he goes back to the nineteenth century”. They smile, they expected something more violent. Especially in light of the aggressive tones used by Conte’s deputies in recent days. During the Council, even his colleague Stefano Patuanelli had lashed Di Maio with anger: “he does not represent us anymore.” And again: «I have the impression of having been catapulted into our past, among the yellow vests, pro-Putin positions and the sale of our ports to the Chinese. But the foreign minister of today is accusing us, not our political leader of yesterday, who supported those positions ».
The whole circle of Conte’s praetorians is beating hard, but the final statement of the Council is without thorns. “Because there was mediation,” says a council participant. Chiara Appendino, Lucia Azzolina, Tiziana Beghin, Davide Crippa, Alfonso Bonafede: they all asked to tone down. Crippa, as group leader in the House, blurted out against the party leaders: “Tell us if you want to leave the government.” Even Bonafede no longer seems so convinced that the direction taken by Conte is the right one. He did not like – they say – how he managed the appointment of regional coordinators. Not even a man at Di Maio altitude. It is said that just at that moment the foreign minister understood that he would not have any space on the list for his in the next elections and that it would have been better to abandon ship. If then on the limit of the two mandates ad hoc exceptions arrive to save the big names, as Conte would like, many other parliamentarians who so far have not taken sides already let it be known that they will leave the Movement.