Rome (dpa) – Former Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday presented a statute for a revival of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) after weeks of delay.
“In the statute you will find what I consider to be the foundations for the revival of our common action,” the 56-year-old lawyer said in a video posted on Facebook on Saturday evening.
M5S has been leaderless for more than a year. Conte, who as an independent led a centre-left alliance until its collapse in January, is being touted as the possible next head of the party.
He said that the new statute will see members take a more central role. He also changed the party’s five areas of interest, the “five stars,” to: common goods, ecology, social justice, technological innovation and eco-social economy.
The party’s areas of interest used to be: maintaining Italy’s water resources in public hands, transport, development, telecommunications and the environment.
From August 2, the members of the largest parliamentary party are to vote on the statute on new online platform Skyvote.
The M5S has been looking for a new party leadership for about a year and a half. Luigi Di Maio, currently foreign minister in Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s Cabinet, resigned from his post as political leader of the movement in January 2020.
Since then, Vito Crimi has presided over the anti-establishment party on an acting basis. The upcoming vote is also likely to be decisive for Conte’s position as president.
dpa
Photo Italian former prime minister Giuseppe Conte attends Rai Tre’s Italian television talk show ‘Mezzora in piu’ conducted by Italian journalist Lucia Annunziata (not pictured), in Rome, Italy, 13 June 2021. EPA-EFE/RICCARDO ANTIMIANI
