Five percentage points and – above all – two million fewer votes. The result of Giuseppe Conte’s 5 Star Movement in the 2024 European elections puts the leader at risk. And it opens up to a possible rotation with a woman: Virginia Raggi or Chiara Appendino, the two mayors who won in Rome and lost the race for reconfirmation. But in the meantime, the grillini are discussing the possibility of abolishing the two-term limit and also the rule according to which candidates must be chosen with an online vote. And there are those who whisper that the possibility of changing the party’s name is also in the air. Meanwhile Beppe Grillo chooses the game of silence. He does not comment on the results and waits for the M5s president to make his move. Davide Casaleggio speaks instead and asks for Conte’s resignation.
The defeat
The analysis of the defeat of the M5s in the European elections is all about the difference between two numbers: two years ago it brought home 4.3 million votes and over the weekend it got 2.3 million. The result of a detailed collapse in the South, the Movement’s traditional reservoir of votes. Due to the shift of votes to the Pd and Avs and to the abstentionism, which significantly worsened the situation of the Grillini. Second Republic among parliamentarians there is an air of contestation especially regarding the candidacies: all chosen with the two-mandate rule, they have kept away many new faces who could have attracted votes at the polls. And many are starting to wonder if the result isn’t “a good opportunity for a change at the top”. At stake are the names of Raggi and Appendino, but also that of Alessandro Di Battista.
The remedies
Among the critics there is also Danilo Toninelli: «The M5S is no longer a revolutionary party. Grillo made us dream, Conte is a technician, you have to have the courage to say that he is a good person but technicians have no ability to excite.” According to Davide Casaleggio Conte «should make his role available». The Corriere della Sera instead he lets it be known that among the remedies imagined among the Grillini there is also the hypothesis of changing the name and themes. A restyling that resembles a rebranding, already toyed with some time ago and then shelved. To save himself, the former People’s Lawyer plans to aim for the cancellation of the third mandate. That is, the move that would reopen the candidacy of Raggi and Appendino.
