The 5-Star Movement (M5S) is in major turmoil due to a clash between the founder of the anti-establishment group, comedian-cum-politician Beppe Grillo, and its anointed leader, ex-premier Giuseppe Conte.
Parliamentary sources said Friday that Conte's leadership is hanging by a thread.
Conte agreed to lead a revamp of the M5S after his second coalition government collapsed at the start of the year.
Although he was considered close to the movement, he had not previously been part of it.
The ex-premier, 56, and Grillo are reportedly at odds over changes to the movement's statute, including possible changes to the ban on its elected representatives serving more than two terms, and over the role that the 72-year-old founder will have.
Grillo, who currently has the role of 'guarantor' of the movement, told M5S lawmakers on Thursday that Conte "must understand that I can still be useful to him", sources said.
He described Conte as "rational" and himself as a "visionary" who had known the M5S since its birth, the sources said.
The Internet-based movement was only founded in 2009 but it fast won support among people disaffected by Italy's traditional parties and it was the individual group that won most votes in the 2018 general election.
It has now been part of three coalition governments though and, with the compromises that come with being in power, much of its support has fallen away recently.
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