The leader of the 5 Star Movement (M5S, anti-system), Luigi Di Maio, resigned on Wednesday from the head of his party, four days before a regional election crucial to the survival of the Italian government. The M5S is the largest party in the center-left coalition of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and this resignation will further weaken the already fragile alliance with the Democratic Party (left), undermined by dissension between the two parties.

Luigi Di Maio should remain minister of the government of Giuseppe Conte (close to the M5S), according to the Italian press, which also reports remarks which he would have made to his close relations: "It is the moment for a step back from the party. I'm tired, exhausted. "

The head of Italian diplomacy was challenged inside the M5S by elected officials who considered that he could not reconcile the posts of minister and party leader. Discordant voices have also been heard on the management of the movement among parliamentarians, many of whom have already defected in recent months. Some parliamentarians also criticize the management of the funds that each of them must pay to the movement, by returning part of their salary equivalent to 2,000 euros per month.

"I am here today to present my resignation as leader of the party," said Luigi Di Maio, at a rally of M5S members. During a speech of almost an hour at the end of which he was entitled to a standing ovation, he called the M5S "a visionary project that has never existed before". Luigi Di Maio, 33, joined the M5S in September 2017.

Fall of movement in polls

The move comes just before a crucial regional election slated for Sunday in northeastern Emilia-Romagna, where a far-right victory could bring down the Italian government formed by the M5S and the Democratic Party. A success of the extreme right in this region historically anchored to the left, of which Bologna is the capital, could provoke anticipated legislative elections ardently desired by the head of the League (far right), Matteo Salvini.

The first party in Italy during the last legislative elections in March 2018, where it obtained 32% of the vote, the M5S collapsed to 19% of the votes in the European elections last May. Today, it is credited with around 15% of voting intentions, behind the Democratic Party at 18%, with which it governs, and the League, at 33%.

With AFP

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