Italy’s 5-Star to rerun vote that ousted co-founder Grillo

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ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s opposition 5-Star Movement plans to re-run a vote that severed its ties with co-founder Beppe Grillo, its leader Giuseppe Conte said late on Monday.

The removal of Grillo from his role as party guarantor was one of a series of reforms agreed by 5-Star members on Sunday that were seen as turning what was once a radical protest movement into a more mainstream left-leaning force.

Conte said that a repeat of the vote among party members in the coming days was the easiest response after Grillo challenged it, rather than trying to get the verdict upheld by a court.

“We have to deal with the needs of the country, where the movement wants to provide solutions and (there are) battles to be won, not the whims and personal quarrels of the founder,” former prime minister Conte wrote on social media.

Grillo, has made no public comment since Sunday’s vote, but one of his supporters, former Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, said the 76-year-old party founder had no intention of giving up.

“The lion is injured but he has plenty more fight in him,” Toninelli said in a radio interview.

Under 5-Star’s rules, more than half of its members must vote in the repeated ballot in order for its result to be considered valid.

Conte has repeatedly clashed with Grillo since he took the reins of Italy’s second-largest opposition party in 2021.

Grillo, who helped to create the party in 2009, had retained a formal role as guarantor of its founding values, and an annual contract worth 300,000 euros ($315,000) as communications adviser.

Grillo founded the movement with internet expert Gianroberto Casaleggio. Within a decade it won 32% of the vote at 2018 elections, double that of its nearest rival, and became the senior partner in a coalition government.

However, it has lost steam in recent years, weakened by internal bickering, and it currently has around 11% support ratings in polls.

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