Conte, prophet of a reborn 5 Star Movement

The presidents of the Council of Ministers in Italy never finish leaving.

Some repeat, like Giulio Andreotti (seven times), or Silvio Berlusconi (four);

others, like Matteo Renzi, become uncomfortable parliamentarians who move the chair to the leader of the day and exercise their power based on palace moves.

Giuseppe Conte is still not clear about what category history will reserve for him after being discharged from the Government in Operation Draghi just a month ago.

But he has decided that he does not want to go back to teaching at the university or disappear from the political scene.

Last weekend he almost agreed with the comedian Beppe Grillo his new stage as leader of the 5 Star Movement.

A new twist of the party that came to the Government three years ago to demolish the system and has ended up becoming its main pillar.

The 5 Star Movement was born in 2009 as a rebellious, anti-caste and openly populist force.

It was founded by a comedian and a

digital

entrepreneur

(Gianroberto Casaleggio).

It proclaimed the overcoming of the traditional ideological scheme and they vowed never to ally themselves with any party to govern.

Today it is the only formation that has done so with the entire parliamentary arc - except with the Brothers of Italy - and that has been able to give a fabulous ideological swerve, now declaring itself "moderate and liberal."

He won the 2018 elections with almost 33% of the votes, but with the lurch he has left a hundred parliamentarians on the way.

The last 40 - between the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies - left on the day of Draghi's inauguration, when they disobeyed the party and rejected it.

The sinking seemed inevitable.

Until Conte raised his hand.

The former prime minister, a self-confessed Social Democratic voter with no affiliation to the M5S, had a 60% popularity rating when his government was toppled in early January.

A capital that his closest adviser, the exporter of Palacio Chigi, Rocco Casalino, advised him to exploit.

The controversial

put two options on the table, says a person who dispatched with him those days.

“It could be the unifier of a kind of center-left coalition, without the need to stain itself with the party.

Something like what Romano Prodi did with the progressive currents in the late nineties.

But that would have made him disappear from the immediate political scene for too long.

And in a month, the only Conte the Italians would remember would be the Inter coach [Antonio Conte] ”.

The second, which they agreed with Grillo last Sunday in a wonderful hotel overlooking the Roman forums, will make him the leader of the new M5S mutation.

A move that must be ratified by the militancy, but that would stop the party's decline and reactivate its popularity.

Polls published in recent days give Conte's M5S about six more points.

A rise that would reach up to 22% of the votes and that, in part, would be nourished by voters from the Democratic Party (PD).

With the former prime minister in the engine room, the

would be placed almost at the head of the future electoral contest after the Draghi era.

M5S MP Sergio Battelli believes that evolution is inevitable.

“When you enter the machine, you cannot go back in the same legislature to fight or oppose.

It is obvious that we will maintain our principles, but we must renew ourselves completely.

The ideas of 10 years ago are surpassed by history or because we have already realized them.

You have to go from propaganda to facts, while maintaining principles.

And in a phase of change, a figure like Conte is important. ”.

A strong M5S, with a more democratic and traditional management and a "center-left", as the former prime minister has demanded to lead the new device, could serve to strengthen the coalition with the PD in future municipal and national elections and compete with the right-wing bloc (League, Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia).

But, at the same time, it weakens the Social Democrats and could raise suspicions when it comes to approving the other great operation that the M5S has underway in Europe.

The

do not have a parliamentary group in Brussels and have long wandered on the margins of community strategies.

The rejection of the Greens - considering their platform for digital participation undemocratic - and their distancing from the anti-European forces (they sat for a time with Nigel Farage's UKIP) has condemned them to an ostracism that could end if the European Socialist Party accept your income.

But what would the PD say if, suddenly, they were the main Italian center-left force in that great family?

Tiziana Beghin, the head of the European M5S delegation, believes they are independent operations.

"Having 10 deputies in the non-registered in Brussels is bad for us, but also for Italians: there is less possibility of influencing changes."

Beghin also points out the points of union with the PD and the need for confluence.

“We are a political force close to the citizens: equality, work, health and the environment.

In this we very often come across the themes of the PD and the European Socialist Party.

It is the group with whom we have the greatest voting affinity in this legislature: we have agreed in 80% of the votes And the experience of Conte's second term has made them more evident.

Furthermore, the PD has a strong identity and will be able to reconstruct its presence on the scene ”, he points out.

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Conte, in any case, is the master key to solving the serious problems of the M5S.

And at the same time, a transformed party will be the perfect vehicle if it wants to recover its chair in the Chigi Palace in the next elections and belong, as it wishes, to the category of the presidents of the Council of Ministers who never finish leaving.