A Cricket in Rome (but nobody notices it). How distant are the times of the Hotel Forum

How distant are the times of the Hotel Forum. The parable, after all, is a bit like the one described by Ennio Flaiano. Even the city is the same, but the Martian is called Beppe Grillo. And just like that alien stopped making the news. Of course, the Kunt from Mars had not set out to found a religion, nor did he call himself the “Elevated One.” But the crowd and the crowd, the reporters willing to be mistreated in order to get a good joke for half a title are gone. Curiosity has passed. On the other hand, now the pentastellati are what they are.

And then, to accompany the return to Rome of the founder of the 5 stars – the meeting with the parliamentarians – only a late-night agency, a few articles in today’s newspapers. A sign of changing times, of the 5 stars eclipsing behind a clutch bag and of a protagonism that no longer belongs to Beppe Grillo, grappling with his Church of Elsewhere, with his theater tour – “I am the worst ” – around Italy. In short, politics seems to no longer be his genre. Yet there were times when the Hotel Forum, that ancient eighteenth-century building a stone’s throw from the Roman Forum, which Grillo had elected as his headquarters during his visits to Rome, represented a focal element of Italian politics. Because fundamental choices and meetings passed from there, such as those that preceded the consultations at the Quirinale for the formation of the government in 2013 or the choice of Virginia Raggi as mayoral candidate in Rome. It was a phase in which Grillo’s presence in the capital marked decisive steps, for the Movement and for Italian politics.

Yesterday instead in via di Campo Marzio, in the headquarters of the grillini, the hustle and bustle of reporters and television cameras has not been seen. “It’s the usual Grillo, irrepressible and projected towards tomorrow”, said one of the participants. One of the “fantastic parliamentarians”, as Grillo himself defined them last night, also announcing that “there will be some news”. Yet there is no trace of this appointment even on the Movement’s social networks, although the political leader also participated Joseph Conte (who would also have lunch with the founder) and the group leaders of the Chamber and Senate, Francesco Silvestri and Stefano Patuanelli.

At the center of the summit, it seems, foreign policy and constitutional reforms. But also artificial intelligence and the disappointing result of the administration, the ballots on Sunday, with the Guarantor who would like to tighten up with the Democratic Party wherever possible. A thesis that does not convince Conte, just as the discussion on the third term in view of the 2024 European elections remains open. But “of this, as of other political issues, Grillo and the former prime minister talk constantly”, assures another parliamentarian present, adding that “greeting deputies and senators is not the time for political planning”. If anything, that will come later, religion permitting. Meanwhile Kunt returns to Genoa.