Grillo avoids politics, the leadership in the hands of Conte-Corriere.it

ORVIETO More than what was seen on stage or in the hall, for the Movement what matters and has value is what happened outside the theatre, right on the other side of the street. Beppe Grillo, at the end of the “premiere” of his new show “I am the worst” in Orvieto, dined together with the top Five Star leaders. Two tables in a private room. On the one hand, the guarantor, Giuseppe Conte, the deputy Michele Gubitosa, Roberto Fico, the president of INPS Pasquale Tridico, Marco Travaglio, the notary Valerio Tacchini and friends and managers of Grillo’s entourage. On the other hand, several M5S MPs or former MPs: Paolo Bernini, Tiziana Ciprini, the treasurer Claudio Cominardi, Marco Croatti, Barbara Guidolin just to name a few.

“The Dinner of Smiles”, as some participants branded it. And herein lies the novelty: politics, despite the recent Regionals, has remained out of the conversation. The guarantor preferred to talk about something else, leaving out for once jabs and comments. And this despite the movement’s step backwards in Lazio and Lombardy. The dinner in Orvieto plastically marks how much Grillo in this phase prefers to devote himself to something else, precisely to founding the Church of Elsewhere (to obtain the eight per thousand and finance, as he explained from the stage, charity projects) and – obviously – the new theater tour after a five-year absence. At the same time, Grillo’s silences on starry politics suggest how much the leadership of the Movement is currently in the hands of Giuseppe Conte. A role that, despite some internal stomach aches (in these hours Fabio Massimo Castaldo has called for a participatory confrontation within the Five Stars), has never been so firm before.