Fico, Raggi, Bonafede: towards the farewell at the limit of the double mandate, the former 5S bigwigs are back on track

For the M5S it is a small, indeed great revolution, the conclusion of the path of slow crumbling of the totem that lasted years and that cost the separation, not consensual, with Beppe Grillo : potentially all those of the old guard will return to Parliament, or at least those who did not leave slamming the door: Alfonso Bonafede, Vito Crimi, Paola Taverna, Stefano Buffagni , for example. If they and especially the voters want it.

The new rules on overcoming the limit of the double mandate presented yesterday by Giuseppe Conte to the party's National Council incorporate what the base of 89,000 members had decided at the constituent assembly last November and now, the last act, they will be voted on the Movement's website. The vote will be called with at least eight days' notice. It is not a "free for all", but there are revisions that allow a partial overcoming of the ancient dogma according to which politics should not be transformed into a profession. From the "stop and go", that is, if you have been stopped for a legislature you can do a new mandate, to the exceptions - we are talking about 5 percent of the "exempted" candidates - granted by the president and voted by the members, up to the diversification of the institutional level: after two mandates in Parliament, for example, you can try to move to the Region or a municipality. So for example Roberto Fico will be able to run for president of the center-left in Campania; but also Virginia Raggi, now a councilor of the Capitoline Hill, for her the race in the institutions will not end with this which, with the old rules, would have been her last mandate.

The regulation, as mentioned, opens many avenues for those who had interrupted their parliamentary adventure in 2022. Taverna remained deputy vice president of the M5S, Crimi was hired on the party staff. Others have returned to their professions: like the former Minister of Justice, who is now a member of the Presidency Council of Tax Justice. Fico continued to be active in the territory, Buffagni remained a political face on television. But the list would be long: Riccardo Fraccaro, Gianluca Perilli, Carlo Sibilia, Luigi Gallo, Laura Bottici, Paola Carinelli, Roberta Lombardi , just to name a few. It is not a given that everyone wants or intends to try the experience again in the Chamber or Senate.

Then there are those who will lose out from all this: all the current parliamentarians in their first term, who are perhaps struggling to carve out their own visibility. They will risk being swallowed up by the return of the old guard. While for those in their second term, two of whom are vice-presidents of the M5S (Michele Gubitosa and Mario Turco), everyone will have something to think about on what to do, given that there will be no exemptions for everyone. They will still be able to find an outlet in other elected assemblies.