Sergio Battelli, the new life of the former M5s treasurer: “Enough politics, now I open a chiringuito on the beach”

“I’m detoxifying”, says of his first days out of Parliament Sergio Battelli, 40, a former deputy of the Republic for a few days. After ten years in politics, elected with the M5s in 2013 and passed to Civic Commitment last June as a loyalist of Luigi Di Maio, with the beginning of the new legislature – admits the former Ligurian parliamentarian – “I needed to get back on my feet on the ground, in contact with reality, and disconnect for a while “. Waiting to understand what will become of his reference leader, who after the electoral blow seems to have withdrawn from everything, including politics and social networks. And with two specific objectives above all: “first, the reunion of the youth band, in the Blues Brothers style”, – is the cinematic quote – “second, to open a chiringuito on the beach”.

Battelli, does he say this seriously, or is he part of the detoxification program, after two terms in Parliament?
“Everyone thinks it’s a joke, but it’s a long-standing dream, and I plan to turn it into an entrepreneurial activity soon. I already have contacts started in Barcelona, ​​where the free beach model works, not like in Italy. The Municipality sells in concession the kiosk, if you want you can rent deckchairs and umbrellas, and so on “.

In short, his will be an escape. Too strong, the disappointment of the failure to reapply?
“But no, we knew very well it would be very hard since the fall of the Draghi government. I will miss the Parliament, the fact that I am at the center of everything, the contacts with people. But now I’m back in Genoa, taking a breather for a few months, I enjoy myself curating political podcasts that I post every day on Instagram, and in the meantime I look around “.

How did the launch of your projects for the future take it on Instagram?
“There are those who laughed at it, those who insult, those who accuse me of using Italian money for my professional future. It makes me angry, because I have always worked, and I got there in Parliament because I was voted and elected. But I also know that it goes like this. If you are a politician, there are ten years of guaranteed insults. If you say you want to go back to work, they call you a failure. I have always worked, and I will return to do that, with the utmost serenity “.

On the easy insult on social media and beyond, perhaps, the mea culpa you ex M5s must do too.

“Without a doubt, in the M5s we generalized too much, we realized it when they started giving thieves to us too. We should have explained better, we ended up contributing to channeling too much anger, too much belly against the political class. And no, not it is true that in politics they are all the same “.

What policy does it leave?
“A politics in which, who better, who worse, all say the same things. People don’t care anymore. Ten years ago Beppe Grillo said things that no one had ever said, as a true visionary. Today you can change faces, colors , slogans, and in the end most of them overlap. Giuseppe Conte is trying to make the M5s the new Pd, with no more driving force, Giorgia Meloni has already repositioned herself on the Draghi agenda. The revolution is over, the restoration phase begins. And I can’t find a party that represents me “.

But excuse me, and Civic Commitment?
“With Civic Commitment we made an attempt, it would have had a future without early elections, probably. It didn’t go well”.

Do you have any regrets about the split thinking about how it went?
“No. The only thing I regret is that Di Maio ended up in the meat grinder, insulted on social media, on the street, a victim of the hatred of so many people, when in reality all the results of the Movement in recent years have brought them at home The law sweeps corrupt, or the citizenship income, it’s all his stuff. While Conte went hand in hand with the Fontana and the Salvinis he criticizes now “.
Who knows him well, will Di Maio leave politics?
“Luigi rightly took a few months to disconnect, if I were him I would simply wait for the right moment, formula and scenario to return. If one has a passion for politics, one cannot stay that far away”.

Hers is not a final farewell to politics, then. And she, who has followed him everywhere, goes to open her chiringuito?
“I will invite him to the inauguration of the kiosk, and I will be offended if he does not come. Politics is like life, like a business: you fall and get up, there is always time to rebuild. Especially if you have shown that you know how to do great things, especially at 36 “