Luigi Di Maio has stepped down as leader of Italy’s anti-establishment MS5 [Five Star Movement] party ahead of a key regional election in the north of the country this weekend.
The Eurosceptic Five Star Movement entered government when it became Italy's largest party in the country’s 2018 elections under Di Maio’s leadership, winning 33 per cent of the vote.
Winning over Italians who were disillusioned with the political class by promising reform, Five Star entered into a coalition with the nationalist League party headed by Matteo Salvini in June 2018.
Since then, Salvini’s party has soared in the opinion polls while Five Star’s stock has fallen.
Having failed in an attempt to trigger new elections, Salvini withdrew from the coalition in August last year, with Di Maio’s party then forming a new government with the centre-left Democratic Party.
Since then, Five Star's popularity has waned even further, prompting Di Maio to tender his resignation as leader.
His departure comes ahead of a key local election in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy on Sunday.
In the local opinion polls, Five Star sits third behind Salvini’s League and the ruling Democratic Party, with the latter holding a very slender lead.
The centre-left have been the dominant political force in the region for many years, but a victory for the nationalists would be a hammer blow to the incumbent coalition government.
Speaking in Rome when announcing his decision to step down, Di Maio called Five Star a "visionary project never achieved before and with no equal anywhere in the world”.
He added that his party deserved to remain in government in order to “have time to sort out the mess made by those in power for the past 30 years”.
He called on the party to “reinvent itself” to see through a difficult period and win back voters.
Vito Crimi has taken over as Five Star’s acting leader, with Di Maio set to stay on in government as minister of foreign affairs.
