Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio announced Wednesday that he was quitting as the leader of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), saying it was time for the anti-establishment group to make a fresh start. Di Maio had been under pressure for some time amid a wave of defections from the party, faltering poll numbers, and poor local-election results. Pressure had built after the loss of 18 MPs in the last few weeks, and 31 since the current parliament was voted in in 2018.
"The time has come for us to remake ourselves," he said as he made the announcement at presentation of new regional 'facilitators' at Rome's Temple of Hadrian.
"Today an era is coming to an end.
"The M5S is a visionary project that was never achieved before and has no equal anywhere in the world.
"We got into office, we proposed an excellent premier and two very good teams of ministers and undersecretaries.
"No one would be willing to bet on our future.
"We have been the nightmare of analysts but it is not over.
"It has just begun.
"This project of growth for the future decades is continuing". Di Maio was a political novice with little work experience when he was elected to parliament as an M5S MP in 2013 at the age of 26.
He went on to become the Lower House's youngest ever deputy speaker and then won an online primary to become the M5S's premier candidate before the 2018 general election.
Although the M5S was the individual party to do best in that election, winning around 33% of the vote, it did not muster enough support for a ruling majority in parliament.
So it formed a coalition government under Premier Giuseppe Conte with the rightwing League party and then, when League leader Matteo Salvini pulled the plug on that executive last year, with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and other smaller groups for the 'Conte 2' administration. The party's poll ratings have dropped to less than a half the 33% it won at the 2018 general election, to about 15-16%. But its score fell below even that at last year's Umbria regional elections, and it is expected to poll badly in Emilia-Romagna and Calabria on Sunday.
Di Maio said former M5S Senate whip, former interior undersecretary and ex cabinet secretary with the media brief Vito Crimi will take over as caretaker leader until an 'estates-general' meeting in mid-March.
The minister played down speculation his move could further destabilise the current Conte government, which has frequently been hit by rows between the coalition partners.
"We ask for the sacrosanct right to be judged at the end of the five years of the parliamentary term," he said. "I think the government should continue because at the end (of the term) the results will be there to see. "But we need to have the time to sort out the mess made by those who government for 30 years before us".
Di Maio also said that the worst enemies of the M5S were within its ranks. "We have lots of enemies," He said. "But no political party has ever been defeated from the outside. "The worst enemies are those within our ranks who work for their own visibility and not for the group".
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