Father has right to give life not death - Conte on Grillo

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - A father has the right to give life and not death to what he creates, ex premier and populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte said Sunday after the founder of the anti-establishment group, stand-up comic Beppe Grillo, on Saturday claimed the right to the party's "extinction".
    Grillo said he was pulling the plug on the M5S after Conte said relations with Grillo had "broken down irreversibly" and announced he will not renew the founder's 300,000-euro-a-year consultancy contract as its 'guarantor'.
    The two-time ex-premier and the comedian had been at odds for months over issues including possible changes to the movement's statute that would eliminate the rule stopping M5S's elective representatives from serving more than two terms. Grillo has said that the two-term rule must not be changed and neither can the movement's name or symbol. The row could lead to a schism.
    "A father has the right to give life, not to give death to his children," Conte said Sunday.
    "So there is no possibility that someone arrogates to himself the right, with arrogance, to determine extinction.
    "Today the Movement is the community of members. "Outside of this there are bossy and high-handed concepts that cannot be justified by political forces". (ANSA).