The new statute of the 5 Star Movement analyzed by Gianfranco Polillo It
took Job’s patience, but in the end we made it. Those 40 thickly written pages, which immortalize the new Statute of the 5 Stars, were neither a simple nor an edifying reading. It was a matter of putting up with almost sixteen thousand words and lining up over 90 thousand characters to get to the bottom of it. But more than the weight of the manuscript, the effort was to overcome the sense of boredom that transpires from a Byzantinism, which pushes us to close the game even before trying our hand at its contents.
It was like attending one of Giuseppe Conte’s many unified network conferences, in the epoch of his heyday. The same period in the succession of clichés, seasoned this time by that juridicese that a document of this kind, in any case, required. We understand why, in the end, Beppe Grillo was forced to leave the game. You can respond to the invective, to show your muscles to the fight, but when the doses of tranquilizer become excessive and enveloping, you give in to fatigue. All the more so if it is perceived, as it happened, that a substantial part of the old “spokespersons”, faced with the lure of being able to benefit from a third mandate, have gone through the competition.
The imprint of the new Statute, which in article 2 incorporates the Charter of principles and values, is markedly left-wing. This puts an end to the ambiguity of those who theorized the primacy of empiricism. The transversality of a movement capable of occupying the entire parliamentary spectrum. And therefore able to form two governments at the antipodes: first with Matteo Salvini, then with Nicola Zingaretti. With Giuseppe Conte himself, the permanent tenant of Palazzo Chigi, in the lead. If, as we whisper, Luigi Di Maio continues to play an increasingly important role in the new internal equilibrium, that characterization could prove to be a not insignificant hindrance.
Why left
But why the Charter of values is the apotheosis of rights. Claiming seats for dinner without worrying about who, in the end, will have to pay the bill. And the celebration of the “reign of freedom” that Charles Marx spoke of two hundred years ago, when he imagined the birth of a historically superior society, where the distinction between classes no longer made sense. Due to a development of the productive forces (historical task of capitalism) which made the exploitation of man by man no longer necessary. We will get there: maybe. But at the moment, whatever Domenico De Masi says, capitalism has not yet reached its terminal stage.
However, a certain coherence must be recognized in Giuseppe Conte. The Charter of Values legitimizes the position taken, still recently, on the citizenship salary. The altola of him towards those who, like Matteo Renzi and Matteo Salvini, would like a drastic pruning. In his conversation with Mario Draghi he would have declared the entire unavailability of the Movement towards substantial changes. At most a few small tweaks. In this, he needs to take into account what is happening in other European countries. Little mystification. Elsewhere the amount of the subsidy against poverty – because this is and not the start of work – is not so high as to discourage the search for any alternative.
Well, in the Charter of Values, the logic of the citizen’s salary is extended to all areas of the economy and society: common goods, integral ecology, social justice, technological innovation and eco-social market economy. Fears that should, at least so it seems, marry the five stars of the symbol, which still remain. A line of continuity with the past. Then the new declaration: respect for the person, peace, democracy, politics as a service, public ethics, respect for legality, transparency and simplification, active citizenship, right to health, education, work, responsible business, the principle of subsidiarity and care some words.
Certain passages are significant. The old idea of direct democracy, to be opposed to the parliamentary one, gives way to the sweetness of a simple longing: “The relationship between citizens and their representatives must be constantly nurtured. – textual in the document – And at the basis of the good functioning of our company. In this perspective, interventions aimed at improving the quality of the representative system are inserted, but also at strengthening the institutions of participatory democracy, through which citizens are directly involved in making decisions of collective interest “. The break with the thought of Gianroberto Casaleggio is thus felt in all the fullness of him.
But where the gap is impressive and when from the lightness of the defense of every possible right, we pass to the heaviness of the organization. Then all indulgence ceases to outline a form that closely resembles the old organization of the Unified Socialist Party of Germany in East Berlin. The one, just to understand, that was directed for twenty years each by Walter Ulbricht first and then by Erich Honecker. Maximum centralization of command in the hands of the President. “Sole owner and responsible for the determination and implementation of the political policy”. “Political representative of the 5 Star Movement in all locations and situations, formal and informal”. “He directs and coordinates the communication of the activities of the Movement” and of the elected “, “Of the Training School and related initiatives and editorial and advertising productions, through any means and with any support, including multimedia”. It has the responsibility of coordinating and ensuring the uniformity of the communication of the 5 Star Movement and exercises this responsibility on all the representative articulations of the Movement “. Thanks, it immediately comes to mind, to the monumental action of Rocco Casalino.
Hence the panoply of attributions partly civil, partly responding to the post-Grillo Thermidorian logic. Legal representation before third parties and in court; direction of relations with other political forces or political movements; full responsibility for the use of the 5 Star Movement symbol, also for all activities related to electoral rounds; presidency of the National Council of which he is a member by right; manager and coordinator of the Committee for territorial proximity; the Committee for training and updating; responsible for determining the share of resources that may be allocated to the territorial groups aimed at projects and initiatives; holder of the right to designate the President of the 5 Star Movement Training School.
Leaving aside the consideration of the other implicit powers, it is good to remember the other prerogatives of the President. Proposes to the competent bodies the Regulations provided for by the same Statute; decides “the hiring of the staff of the Association and the conferment of assignments, including professional ones, to third parties; for assignments to the same person whose total value exceeds 100 thousand euros, one-off or annual, it is necessary to obtain the favorable opinion of the Guarantee Committee “. It obviously has all the powers of ordinary administration, while for the extraordinary ones it is required “the consent and / or ratification by the Guarantee Committee”. “It can designate Coordinators at the territorial level (regional, provincial, municipal) to whom to delegate specific functions attributed to the President by this Statute”.
Here it is better to stop for a moment. It is the theorem of an investiture that radiates downwards from above. It is the top down of the Anglo-Saxon language, against the bottom up (from bottom to top) that was characteristic of a movement that grew up in the folds of civil society and only later emerged by magic in the Italian political panorama. The statute certifies the end of the mythical meetups that “are dissolved, starting from the approval of this Statute” as well as “the local groups and territorial formations self-constituted over time or in fact already operating.” And replaced by the more bureaucratic “territorial groups”, whose leaders are carefully chosen by the President.
It only needs to be added that “any local political alliances with political parties or movements must be previously authorized by the President;” and therefore “approved by the territorially competent assembly, in compliance with specific Regulations approved by the Guarantee Committee”. And so the circle is closed. To understand the difference in weight between the President and the Guarantor, consider that the Statute dedicates just a quarter of the legislative space reserved to the President to the latter: absolute dominus of the new political formation. The only thing in which Conte had to give up was the duration of the assignment. While the President remains such for four years and can be re-elected only once, the Guarantor is “indefinite”, unless revoked, following a particular procedure.
Beyond the technical aspects described above, what is impressive is the 360 degree turn. To the unpredictability of Beppe Grillo, able to put his histrionic skills not only at the service of the show, but of politics, the bureaucrat’s clutch is replaced. A Statute built with the pharmacist’s sling: aimed at maximizing the power of the top, carefully avoiding possible interference of a democratic nature. That the reading of the document was destined to produce more than a bad mood was therefore more than likely.
On the web, in view of the votes of 2 and 3 August, a document with a significant title is circulating: “io dico no”. And the invitation not to allow the genetic mutation of the old movement. The allegations coincide to a large extent with the critical remarks made earlier. With some additions. In fact, the voting itself is considered illegitimate since “the IT tools through which the MoVimento 5 Stelle association must organize the voting management methods are those of the ‘Rousseau Platform'”.
The document then points the finger at the “top-down structure” of the M5S designed by the new statute, stating that the members “are prevented” from running for leadership of the Movement: “The only candidate in the race for driving is in fact imposed by the Guarantor and members can only ratify a unipersonal decision without being able to exercise the legitimate right to choose their representatives “. Conte’s “almost absolute” powers are also under accusation, since the future president of the M5S “will be able to decide independently most of the choices provided by the statute”.
The rebels add that in the “Neo M5S free candidacies from below are abolished and a structure of nominated by one nominated is created”; “There are no recall tools for members”, in “total contrast” with what was decided by the States General; the power of guarantee is “cornered” by the executive: the new statute of Conte “binds his hands” to the guarantor Beppe Grillo, who “will turn out to be an absolutely downsized figure and almost no powers of intervention”. The spontaneity and initial wealth that was typical of the good old days is replaced by a “very expensive and bureaucratized” structure. “The choice to create many unnecessary, redundant and competent committees in some respects even overlapping, will create a rigid internal bureaucracy, anachronistic and quirky that will make the actions of the Movement slow and swampy “. Not to mention that the various committees appointed by Conte “could become the place for all the former elected officials looking for positions and job positions that the president can assign exclusively”.
Painful and finally the suppression of meetups and activist groups, which were the original forms of a political organization, which was born spontaneously and enriched itself with the contents of social protest. To be replaced by bureaucratic structures designed to respond to the logic of personal power, especially when the limit of two mandates for the exercise of elected offices falls by the wayside. And the swan song of those who believed they could open Parliament like a can of tuna. And now they are forced to take note of a normalization which, as often happens, moves the pendulum of history far beyond its original starting point.
