Five Star leader quits as Italy braces for crucial elections
ITALY’S foreign minister has resigned as head of the Five Star Movement just days before crucial regional elections.
Buffeted by a string of defections by MPS and a run of dismal electoral performances, Luigi di Maio announced he was stepping down as leader of the party, which governs in coalition with the centre-left Democratic Party.
“The time has come to reorganise. Today, an era comes to an end. I have completed my task,” he told a party conference in Rome.
He will remain as foreign minister, a post he has held since September.
Under his leadership, the party’s popularity has halved since it won 33 per cent of the vote in national elections in 2018.
Having long promised never to do a deal with other parties, Five Star entered into an awkward coalition first with the hard-right League and then, when that collapsed last summer, with the Democratic Party.
Mr Di Maio, a 33-year-old university dropout and former football stadium steward, was criticised for an autocratic style that disenchanted many of the movement’s members.
More than 30 Five Star MPS have deserted or been expelled since the election of 2018, with the pace of defections growing in recent weeks. Five Star is expected to fare badly in two regional elections on Sunday – in Emilia Romagna, in the wealthy north, and Calabria, in the dysfunctional far south.
Mr Di Maio’s resignation adds to the instability of Italian politics as the League targets a comeback by conquering Emilia-romagna, a region that has been in the hands of the Left since the end of the Second World War.
Matteo Salvini, the League leader who served as deputy prime minister until ousted from power last summer, would be likely to use a victory to demand fresh elections, which could result in him becoming prime minister at the helm of a hard-right coalition.
The departure of Mr Di Maio could set off a bruising battle among Five Star figures hoping to succeed him, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the shaky governing coalition.
The new leader is expected to be chosen at a party congress in March.