Count to the test of the Statute, and M5S Serra ranks on divisions

No clash between Giuseppe Conte and Luigi Di Maio, no fracture, just a choral work. On the day after the grueling negotiation on the Cartabia reform, the leaders of the M5S close the ranks of a Movement where the risk of a split is always around the corner. First the denial of the staff of the Foreign Affairs holder and then a note from the Movement underline how the Five Stars are more united than ever. Indeed in the note - defined as "official" to give a sense of distance from drafts and whispers - the leaders invite the press not to transform any "ideas of individuals" into "parliamentary sources". And it is an invitation, perhaps, also addressed within a Movement that has often entrenched itself behind the screen of "sources".

The fact is that the description of a Count and a Di Maio placed on opposite sides in the negotiation with Mario Draghi has rather infuriated both the former prime minister and his right-hand man. On the other hand, pages and pages have been written about the dichotomy between Conte and Di Maio, since the government with the League. And it has never been a mystery that, in certain situations, there was no good blood between the former premier and the foreign minister. Just as it is no mystery that, with respect to the government, Conte and Di Maio could run into some diversity of views. The first is ready to up the ante to defend the historical battles of the Movement, the second is quick to act as a "moderator", as happened yesterday in the long push and pull on the Cartabia reform.

But Conte's strategy also aims to keep together an M5S that has come out of long months of silence on the main government dossiers.

It is a movement that, in its large part, still does not digest the Draghi government.

And between now and the next few months, he won't hide it.

"The Movement finds itself stronger, more united, in full harmony. And for this very reason it will make its voice heard stronger", reads the note.

Today and tomorrow, then, for Conte there will be the first concrete challenge,

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It is difficult for yeses to exceed the quorum (majority of those entitled to vote) already in the first round but, if so, it would be success for the former prime minister.

Then, upon returning from vacation, there will be a vote on Conte as president.

In the meantime, the leader in pectore will have to compose the very delicate party organization chart. Many in the Movement bet that two of the three members of the Guarantee Committee are Di Maio and Roberto Fico. For the vice presidents in the running there are several: from Lucia Azzolina to Chiara Appendino, from Stefano Buffagni to Virginia Raggi herself. We are in the mere field of hypotheses. Next week, however, Conte will complete his tour among the commissions. And with that Constitutional Affairs he will address a topic that, from next autumn, could become topical again: the electoral law, with most of the M5S which, at least until a few weeks ago, became the spokesperson for the proportional. Certainly - explains a deputy - "Conte will have to give a perspective to the groups, otherwise the risk is breakdown".

On the Cartabia bill, however, the defections are expected to be few. In two different interviews, Alfonso Bonafede and Giulia Sarti, among the most barricaders, actually approve the agreement. A few "suspicious" absences are counted, but for now there is no alarm. "It is certainly not the text we imagined at the beginning but we did everything possible to improve it and we succeeded thanks to determination and unity of purpose", explains Sergio Battelli. "Now we are more united", echoes Eugenio Saitta. And Di Maio and Conte? According to some rumors of the M5S they would have gone to dinner yesterday after the CDM. The two are different but this does not seem like the time to break up.