• 2019 Luigi Di Maio resigns as leader of the M5E

The Italian Foreign Minister,

Luigi di Maio

, announced today that he is leaving the

5-Star Movement (M5S)

after several disagreements with its leader, former Prime Minister

Giuseppe Conte

, regarding the shipment of weapons to

Ukraine

and thus forced the split from the party as several dozen parliamentarians are willing to follow him.

After a day of tensions, Di Maio, 35, who was at the head of the M5S since its birth in 2009, summoned the media in a hotel in

Rome

to announce that he and several colleagues, whose number he did not indicate, were leaving the party and started a new path.

The tensions between Di Maio and the leadership of the M5S, in particular with Conte, have been going on for a long time and have various reasons, but the one that appears as the main one and that has forced the total rupture is the opposition of a part of the party to send more weapons to Ukraine without at least parliamentary approval.

"Necessarily, we had to choose which side of history to be on: with an attacked Ukraine or with the aggressor,

Russia

. The positions of some M5S leaders risked weakening our country," he added.

Di Maio assured that given the situation that is being experienced due to the war in Ukraine

, "a united Europe is needed

and this depends on there being united governments" and for this reason "it was necessary to support the Government, leaving the controversies behind".

He criticized some members of the M5S who behaved "as irresponsible" at a time like this when it was necessary to support "Europeanist and Atlanticist" values.

Di Maio does not seem to have the intention of presenting his resignation as Foreign Minister and it does not seem that the Italian Prime Minister,

Mario Draghi,

accepts his departure at this time.

The one who was the "prodigy boy" of the M5S and the youngest foreign minister in Italian history announced the formation of a new group that will be called

'Together for the future'

with representation in the Chamber of Deputies and that will be part of the group mixed in the Senate.

Although the parliamentarians who leave the M5S have yet to be counted, as Di Maio announced, the party will no longer be the largest parliamentary group and will become Matteo Salvini's far-right League.

Some analysts explain that Di Maio's decision would also weigh the intervention of the founder of the M5S, the comedian Beppe Grillo, who decided to support Conte, in limiting the members of the movement to two terms, which would make Di Maio out of game in the next elections, scheduled for 2023.

For years the M5S has been going through crises and divisions, but the confrontation had remained to a certain extent latent until last week, when Di Maio harshly criticized Conte due to the dismal results of the municipal elections.

On Sunday night, a meeting of the National Council of the M5S was held, one of the various executive bodies of the party made up of various representatives such as the presidents of the parliamentary groups, which issued an equally harsh statement about Di Maio, accusing him of having brought a "serious discredit to the entire political community of the M5S" and even circulated the possibility of expelling him

Today Di Maio, after four uninterrupted years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Labor, Economic Development and Vice President of the Government, left the M5S, but it does not seem that this could affect the Government since the new group will continue to support Draghi.

In the event that, after what happened, the M5S decides to leave the government coalition, Draghi could still have the majority.

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