Five Star Movement

The Five Star Movement (Italian: Movimento 5 Stelle [moviˈmento ˈtʃiŋkwe ˈstelle], M5S) is a political party in Italy, led by Giuseppe Conte.^[10] The party was established on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a political activist and comedian, and Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist.^[11] The party is primarily described as populist^[12][13][14] of the syncretic kind,^[15][16][17] due to its long-time insistence that it had no place in the left–right political spectrum.^[18][19] The party has been a proponent of green politics^[20] and direct democracy,^[21] and, more recently, progressivism^[22][23] and social democracy.^[24] Following an online vote held from 21 to 24 November 2024, party members decided to position themselves as "independent progressives".^[25]

In the 2013 general election, the M5S obtained 25.6% of the vote,^[26] but rejected a proposed coalition government with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and joined the opposition.^[27][28] In 2016 M5S' Chiara Appendino and Virginia Raggi were elected mayors of Turin and Rome, respectively.^[29] The M5S supported the successful "no" vote in the 2016 constitutional referendum.^[30] In the 2018 general election, the M5S, led by Luigi Di Maio, became the largest party with 32.7%^[31][32][33] and successfully formed a government headed by M5S-backed independent Giuseppe Conte together with the League. After the 2019 government collapsed, the party formed a new government with the PD, with Conte remaining prime minister until the 2021 government crisis, which resulted in the formation of the Draghi government.^[34][35] Since 2019 the M5S has occasionally sided with the centre-left coalition in regional and local elections, but not yet in general elections. In the 2022 general election, the party suffered a substantial setback, was reduced to 15.4% and joined the opposition to the Meloni government.^[36] In the 2024 Sardinian regional election, M5S' Alessandra Todde was elected president of Sardinia, the party's first regional president,^[37][38] at the head of a centre-left coalition.^[39]

From the establishment of the association named Five Star Movement until 2021, Grillo formally served as president, his nephew Enrico Grillo as vice president and his accountant Enrico Maria Nadasi as secretary.^[40][41] In 2014 Grillo appointed a five-strong directory, composed of Di Maio, Alessandro Di Battista, Roberto Fico, Carla Ruocco and Carlo Sibilia,^[42][43] which lasted only a few months as Grillo proclaimed himself the political head of the M5S.^[44] Grillo was succeded as political head by Di Maio, who won the 2017 leadership election with 82% of the vote, and was appointed guarantor instead.^[45][46] In the run-up of the 2018 general election, Grillo separated his own blog, which was used the party's online newspaper, with the brand-new Blog delle Stelle.^[47] After the 2021 leadership election, a new party statute was approved and Conte became the new president, while Grillo continued as guarantor.^[48] The M5S has undergone several splits since its formation, including Alternative, Environment 2050 and Di Maio's Together for the Future,^[49] as well as several individual members, notably including Di Battista.^[50] In late 2024 the party held a "constituent assembly", during which it was chiefly decided to remove the role of guarantor, thus sidelining Grillo,^[51] who challenged the decision,^[52] but eventually lost.^[53]

From 2014 to 2017, the M5S was a member of the

On three occasions (17 December 2005 in Turin, 26 March 2006 in Piacenza, and 16 to 18 June 2006 in Sorrento), the representatives of the Friends of Beppe Grillo meetups held national meetings with Grillo, where proposals regarding environmental issues such as the replacement of polluting incinerators with systems applying mechanical-biological waste treatment were discussed.[62]

During the fourth national meeting held in Genoa on 3 February 2007, Grillo announced his desire to provide an autonomous space during his touring shows for local meetup activists.^[63] On 14 July 2007, some civic list representatives who participated in local elections the previous spring met in Parma to establish a national coordination between associations, movements, and organisations. They met to practice promoting and experimenting with direct and participatory democracy, and to share a document of intent, which included the establishment of proposals, abrogative referendums, the direct election of the Ombudsman, the institution of participatory budgeting, a bound mandate for public administrators, and open primaries.^[64]

On 14 June 2007, Grillo launched Vaffanculo Day (Fuck-off Day), or V-Day, in Bologna. V-Day was meant to mobilise the collection of signatures to submit a popular initiative seeking to introduce preferences in the current electoral law and to prevent parliamentary candidate nominations for the criminally convicted and those who have already completed two terms in office.^[65]

The name V-Day was chosen to reflect four references. The first refers to the Normandy landings of the Allies in Normandy during World War II to symbolise how Italian citizens would invade bad policy. The second refers to the motion picture and graphic novel V for Vendetta, which the M5S frequently relates with its principles of political renewal (the logo of the movement shares the use of a red V symbol with the franchise). The third refers to the interjection vaffanculo ("fuck you") directed at bad policy, while the fourth is a reference to the Roman numeral for five.^[66]

V-Day, which continued the "Clean Parliament" initiative promoted by Grillo since 2006, took place in many Italian cities on 8 September 2007 to evoke the state of confusion caused by the Badoglio Proclamation on 8 September 1943. On that day, 336,000 signatures were collected, far exceeding the 50,000 required to file a popular initiative law. For the occasion, Michele Serra coined the term grillismo.^[67]

V2-Day was organised for 25 April 2008, a second day of action aimed at collecting signatures for three referendums. On 29 and 30 September 2007 in Lucca, several members of the meetups and local civic lists, in the initial wake of the discussions started on the net and in the wake of the previous meeting of Perugia, defined the policies for the establishment of civic lists. On 10 October 2007, Grillo gave guidance on how to create the civic lists.^[68]

On 3 December 2008, Grillo presented the symbol of the Five Star Civic Lists for the 2009 local elections. The logo in the V of citizenship is a reference to V-Day.^[69] On 17 February 2009 in Bologna, a gathering of civic lists discussed the future of the movement and the coming elections. In particular, Sonia Alfano consulted with the activist base of the movement about her possible candidacy for the European Parliament as an independent candidate with the Italy of Values (IdV) list. She became the first Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the M5S.^[70]

On 8 March 2009, the first national meeting of the Five Star Civic Lists was held in Florence, where Grillo presented the Charter of Florence, a 12-point program of the various local civic lists in the afternoon. About twenty local groups presented their ideas and experiences. In April 2009, Grillo announced he had received a letter from Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz in which he declared he would look carefully at the experience of local civic lists promoted through the blog.^[71]

On 29 March 2009, Grillo announced that in the upcoming 2009 European Parliament election in Italy he would support Luigi de Magistris and Sonia Alfano (figures close to the movement) as independent candidates in the lists of IdV, together with the journalist Carlo Vulpio (also close to the movement).^[72] On 11 June, De Magistris and Alfano, candidates in all five constituencies, were elected to the European Parliament, resulting in the first and second preferences (of 419 000 and 143 000). In the same election, as stated by Grillo, 23 councillors were elected from the Five Star Civic Lists, especially in the municipalities of Emilia-Romagna in North Italy.^[73]

On 9 September 2009, the launch of the National Five Star Movement (M5S), inspired by the ideologies of the Charter of Florence, was announced.^[74] On 4 October 2009, Grillo, along with Gianroberto Casaleggio, Grillo declared the birth of the M5S and presented a programme at the Emerald Theatre in Milan.^[75]

During the 2010 Italian regional elections, the M5S obtained notable results in the five regions where it ran a candidate for president, as Giovanni Favia gained 7.0% of the vote in Emilia-Romagna (6.0% for the list, with two regional councillors elected); Davide Bono 4.1% in Piedmont (3.7%, two councillors); David Borrelli 3.2% in Veneto (2.6%, no councillors); Vito Crimi 3.0% in Lombardy (2.3%, no councillors); and Roberto Fico 1.3% in Campania (1.3%, no councillors).^[76]

In the 2011 Italian local elections on 15 and 16 May, the M5S was present in 75 of the 1,177 municipalities in the vote, including 18 of the 23 provincial capitals called to vote. In the first round, the M5S entered its representatives in 28 municipalities (for a total of 34 elected councillors) and often resulting in some important decisive ballots.^[77] Its best results were in the cities and towns of the center-north, especially in Emilia-Romagna, where the list achieved a share of the vote of between 9% and 12% in Bologna, Rimini, and Ravenna), and Piedmont. In Southern Italy, it rarely obtained 2% of the vote.^[78]

In the 2011 Molise regional election on 16 and 17 October, the M5S had its own candidate for the presidency and its own list. The list received 2.27% of the votes and the presidential candidate garnered 5.60% of the vote, but the movement achieved no seats.^[79]

In the 2012 Italian local elections, the M5S did well in several cities of the Northern Italy, notably in Genoa (14.1%),^[80] Verona (9.5%),^[81] Parma (19.9%), Monza (10.2%),^[82] and Piacenza (10.0%).^[83] In the small Venetian town of Sarego, the M5S's candidate was elected mayor with 35.2% of the vote (there is no run-off in towns with less than 15,000 inhabitants).^[84] In the run-offs, it won the mayorships of Parma (60.2%),^[85] Mira (52.5%),^[86] and Comacchio (69.2%).^[87] After the election, the M5S consistently scored around 15–20% nationally in opinion polls, frequently ahead of the centre-right The People of Freedom (PdL) and second to the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).^[88]

In the 2012 Sicilian regional election on 28 October, the M5S fielded Giancarlo Cancelleri as candidate. The campaign kicked off with Grillo's arrival in Messina on 10 October swimming from the mainland.^[89][90] In the election, Cancelleri came third with 18.2% of the vote, while the M5S was the most voted for party at 14.9%, obtaining 15 seats out of 90 in the Sicilian Regional Assembly in a very fragmented political landscape;^[91] however, the election was characterised by low participation as only 47.4% of eligible voters turned out to vote.^[92]

On 29 October 2012, Grillo announced guidelines for candidates wishing to stand in the 2013 general election.^[93][94] For the first time in Italy, the candidates were chosen by party members through an online primary, which took place 3 to 6 December.^[95] On 12 December 2012, Grillo expelled two leading members from the party (Giovanni Favia, regional councillor of Emilia-Romagna, and Federica Salsi, municipal councillor in Bologna) for breaking the party's rules. The former had talked about the lack of democracy within the party while the latter had taken part in a political talk show on Italian television, something that was discouraged and later forbidden by Grillo.^[96]

On 22 February 2013, a large crowd of 800,000 people attended Grillo's final rally before the 2013 general election in

On 21 March 2013, Luigi Di Maio was elected vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies with 173 votes. Aged 26, he was the youngest vice-president of the house to date.^[99][100]

Competing in its first European election, with a surge in popularity in February 2013,^[101] the M5S won second place at the 2014 European Parliament election held on 26 May, receiving 21.15% of the vote and returning 17 MEP.^[102]

In the run-up to the

On 17 November 2015, after an online poll in which 40,995 people took part, the movement changed its logo to replace the URL of co-founder Grillo (beppegrillo.it) with the official movement URL.[113] The other option was to remove Grillo's URL entirely, replacing it with nothing. The grounds for the removal of Grillo's name was that "the 5 Star Movement is mature enough and is preparing to govern Italy, so I believe it's correct not to associate it to a name anymore".^[114]

The movement's founder and main strategist

In the 2019 European Parliament election in May, the M5S saw decline in its vote share and the number of seats held from 21.2% of the vote and 17 seats to 17.1% of the vote and 14 seats.^[135][136] The results were seen as a significant defeat for the party, as the League was able to surpass the M5S in terms of vote share and seats by a large margin. Additionally, the results showed the party had seen a significant decline since the 2018 general election.^[137]

After the results, Di Maio called a vote of confidence in his leadership after several officials criticised him; transperency of the Rousseau platform, the online platform used by the party, was questioned earlier on in the year.^[138] On 31 May 2019, Di Maio won the vote of confidence, with the support of 80% of 56,127 members who voted on the motion. Afterwards, Di Maio pledged to reform the party.^[139][140]

In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini announced a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Conte after growing tensions within the majority.^[141][142] Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve the League's standing in the Italian Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next prime minister.^[143] On 20 August, following the parliamentary debate in which he accused Salvini of being a political opportunist who "had triggered the political crisis only to serve his personal interest",^[144] Prime Minister Conte resigned his post to President Sergio Mattarella.^[145]

On 21 August, President Mattarella started the consultations with all the

During Conte's second government, the M5S continued to suffer parliamentary defections, among them the senator Gelsomina Vono, who left the M5S to join first IV an then FI,^[154][155] the senator Elena Fattori,^[156] who moved to the Mixed Group and then joined SI in January 2021.^[133][134] while the senator Ugo Grassi, Stefano Lucidi, and Francesco Urraro joined the League.^[157] Additionally, the education ministry Lorenzo Fioramonti left the M5S to join the Mixed Group,^[158] the senator Gianluigi Paragone, who would later found the Eurosceptic Italexit party and was joined by the senators Carlo Martelli and Mario Giarrusso,^[159] was ejected for voting against the finance bill and for his lack of confidence vote to Conte's second cabinet,^[160] the deputies Nunzio Angiola and Gianluca Rospi joined the Mixed Group,^[161] as did the deputies Santi Cappellani,^[162] Massimiliano De Toma, Rachele Silvestri,^[163] Nadia Aprile, and Michele Nitti,^[164] who joined the PD, and the senator Luigi Di Marzio,^[165] while the deputy Flora Frate was expelled from the M5S for failure to return her salary.^[166]

On 22 January, four days before the 2020 Italian regional elections, Di Maio resigned as party leader and was replaced ad interim by Vito Crimi.^[167] On 15 June, the conservative Spanish newspaper ABC reported that then-Foreign Minister of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro paid Gianroberto Casaleggio €3.5 million in 2010 to finance an "anticapitalist, leftist movement in the Italian Republic". Davide Casaleggio said this was fake news that had already surfaced in 2016.^[168]

On 26 January 2021, Conte resigned as prime minister. On 11 February, registered members of the party were made to vote on whether to join a government headed by

On 23 April, M5S and its web platform called Rousseau separated from one another. This was mainly due to a strained relationship as many parliamentarians refused to cover costs of the Rousseau Association. This resulted on the association cutting its ties and sending its employees home on reduced pay. Additionally, disagreements between Davide Casaleggio and Conte over the latter's proposed reforms led to an increasingly strained relationship. After the separation, the M5S accused the association of interference in the party's decisions.[177] In May 2021, Isabella Adinolfi became the eighth MEP to defect from the M5S since the 2019 European Parliament election.^[178][179] In July 2021, the senator Matteo Mantero left the M5S to join Power to the People.^[180]

On 6 August, after a two-day online election in which 67,064 members voted, Conte was elected president of the M5S, with 62,242 votes (93%) in favour.

Some early opinion polling for the 2022 Italian general election showed that the only way to avoid a right-wing alliance victory was the formation of a large big tent coalition including the M5S, minor left-wing and centrist parties, and their 2019–2021 government ally, the PD.^{[207][208][209]} As the M5S was blamed by the PD for causing the fall of Mario Draghi's government,^[210] an alliance was excluded from both sides, despite some pressure from the left to maintain the PD–M5S alliance.^[211] They remained allies at the regional level, such as in Liguria and Sicily, though not without criticism and issues.^[212][213] Under Conte's leadership in 2022, the M5S declared themselves to be part of the progressive pole and to be to the left of the PD;^[214] their campaign centered around the minimum wage and in defence of the citizens' income from right-wing criticism.^[215]

Thanks in part to a strong performance in

In the 2024 European Parliament election, the Five Star Movement placed third, obtaining less than 10% of the vote, a result considered disappointing by Giuseppe Conte.^[224]

In November 2024, Giuseppe Conte called a constituent assembly in which party members were called to vote on a series of points, including placement, alliances, the abolition of the two-term limit and the abolition of the role of guarantor, held by Beppe Grillo. The final phase of the constituent assembly was held from 23 to 24 November through a kermesse called "Nova".^[225] The outcome of the vote saw the consensus for the abolition of the guarantor prevail, thus sanctioning a break between the movement and its co-founder.^[226] Grillo, exercising one of his powers provided for by the party statute, thus asked for a repeat of the vote,^[227] which was held on 8 December. However, the second vote also confirmed the outcome of the first vote, thus definitively abolishing the office held by Grillo.^[228]

The M5S was conceived as a post-ideological movement,

In December 2024, during the party's constituent assembly, its members voted to declare themselves "independent progressives", abolish the limit of two terms for its elects, eliminate the role of party's guarantor (held by Grillo), introduce a law on fine vita (euthanasia), legalise cannabis, progressively abolish cash, improve public healthcare, continue the ecological transition, and create a common European army. The definition of "independent progressives" was voted by 36.7% of participants, while the other options were "no positioning" (26.2%), "progressive force" (22.1%), "left-wing force" (11.5%) and no vote (3.4%).^[265] During the assembly, the party invited Sahra Wagenknecht of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance to give a speech.^[266] "The "progressive" label has been questioned by some Italian politicians due to Sahra Wagenknecht's invitation, along with the ambiguities of current and past issues,^[267] and Conte continued to define the party as "not left-wing".^[268][269]

The movement bases its principles on direct democracy as an evolution of representative democracy. The idea is that citizens will no longer delegate their power to parties, which are considered to be old and corrupted intermediates between the state and themselves, that serve the interests of lobby groups and financial powers. They will succeed only by creating a collective intelligence made possible by the Internet.^[262]

To go in this direction, the M5S chose its Italian and European parliamentary candidates through online voting by registered members of Grillo's blog.

To exemplify how the M5S ranks among other parties for social and environmental stances for the 2013 general election, Nicolò Conti created a chart using poll data, the various parties' individual manifestos, and how these preferences interacted and translated into a policy space that the parties contested. His results were that the M5S ranks first among other parties in welfare spending expansion, environmental protection, and market regulation, where welfare expansion meant the expansion of public social services and excludes education, environmental protection meant policies in favour of preserving/conserving the environment, and market regulation meant policies designed to create an equitable and open economic market.^[281]

One of the most important rules of M5S is that politics is a temporary service; no one who has already been elected twice at any level (local or national) can be a candidate again and has to return to their original job.^[262] Another feature of the movement is the so-called "zero-cost politics",^[258] according to which politics must not become a career and way to make money. Belonging to the movement requires the self-reduction of the salaries of the citizens elected.^[282][283] The movement also rejects campaign contributions. In the 2012 regional elections, the Sicilian wing of the M5S decided to allocate the money saved by the reduction of the salaries of their elected to a fund for microcredit to help small and medium enterprises.^[284] In the 2013 general election, the M5S stated to have rejected over €42 million of public electoral refunds,^[285] supporting its expenses for the campaign with crowdfunding through the blog.^[286]

To be M5S candidates, citizens must not have a

On 15 July 2012, Grillo publicly expressed his support for same-sex marriage,^[291] when the subject was discussed in the PD's National Assembly.^[292] In offering his support to marriage between homosexual citizens, Grillo broke his silence on the subject; some observers had speculated he opposed same-sex marriage.^[293]

On 28 October 2014, an online referendum took place among the activists of the M5S on the recognition of same-sex civil partnerships, in which 21,360 voted in favour and 3,908 voted to oppose it.

During their 2018–2019 government with the League, the M5S approved Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration degrees, for which their future government allies, the PD, which had opposed it, criticised when the M5S declared themselves to be part of the progressive pole and to the left of the PD during the 2022 campaign.^[307] During their government with the PD in 2019–2021, the decrees were partially abolished. Conte later claimed credit, when he first signed the law, for having moderated and made them less extreme than they originally were at the time, and criticised them in an interview to the Corriere della Sera, blaming them on Salvini.^[308] In August 2022, Conte fully disown them.^[309]

On 28 January 2014, Giorgio Sorial, a deputy of the M5S, accused President

A M5S demonstration inside the Chamber of Deputies against a law approved by the government, which happened in January 2014,[317]^[318] caused a brawl between the M5S, the centrist Civic Choice, the right-wing Brothers of Italy, and the centre-left Democratic Party.^[319] Following insults to the president of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini,^[320] Italian journalist Corrado Augias stated on 31 January 2014 that the violence used by the M5S reminded him of fascism.^[321] The following day, a militant activist of the M5S burned some of Augias's books and uploaded the photos to his Facebook profile because according to him "Augias offended the movement".^[322] This episode was readily taken up by major national newspapers and heavily criticised by public opinion due to some similarities with Nazi book burnings.^[323] Grillo criticised the action, saying the person who uploaded the photos did not represent the movement.^[324]

In the 2018 general campaign, the M5S said that they would not have given public money to banks.^[325] In 2019, the M5S–League coalition government gave its consent to the possible bailout of Banca Carige's debt, consisting of an amount of up to 1.6 billion dollars, to compensate bondholders and shareholders. The M5S had previously criticised a similar bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena approved by the Paolo Gentiloni's centre-left government.^[326]

About the politics of the

In December 2017, Di Maio stated that he supported a referendum for Italy to leave the eurozone and would vote to leave.^[334] He rejected his previous position in January 2018,^[335] refusing the idea of a referendum on the euro, which cannot be done by constitution and was previously strongly supported by the movement.^[336] In February 2018, Di Maio stated that "European Union is the Five Star Movement's home".^[337] In September 2019, Di Maio confirmed that the goal was to change Europe from the inside.^[338]

In November 2021, the party discussed switching to the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament.^[339][340]

Following the

• 
  2009–2015
• 
  2015–2018
• 
  2018–2021
• 
  2021–present

Name (born–died)			Term start	Term end	Duration
President
1		Beppe Grillo (born 1948)	4 October 2009	23 September 2017	7 years, 354 days
Political leader
2		Luigi Di Maio (born 1986)	23 September 2017	22 January 2020	2 years, 121 days
Political leader ad interim
–		Vito Crimi (born 1972)	22 January 2020	6 August 2021	1 year, 196 days
President
3		Giuseppe Conte (born 1964)	6 August 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 252 days

• Paola Taverna (senior, 2021–present)
• Michele Gubitosa (2021–present)
• Riccardo Ricciardi (2021–present)
• Alessandra Todde (2021–2023)
• Mario Turco (2021–present)
• Chiara Appendino (2023–present)

• Beppe Grillo (2017–2024)

• Luigi Di Maio (2021–2022)
• Roberto Fico (2021–present)
• Virginia Raggi (2021–present)
• Laura Bottici (2022–present)

• Leader in the Chamber of Deputies: three-month rotation (2013–2018), Giulia Grillo (2018), Francesco D'Uva (2018–2019), Francesco Silvestri (2019), Davide Crippa (2019–2022), Francesco Silvestri (2022–2025), Riccardo Ricciardi (2025–present)
• Leader in the Senate of the Republic: three-month rotation (2013–2018), Danilo Toninelli (2018), Stefano Patuanelli (2018–2019), Gianluca Perilli (2019–2020), Ettore Licheri (2020–2021), Mariolina Castellone (2021–2022), Barbara Floridia (2022–2023), Stefano Patuanelli (2023–present).
• Leader in the European Parliament: three-month rotation (2014–2019), Tiziana Beghin (2019–2024), Pasquale Tridico (2024–present).

The party has been characterised as an

In March 2012, Valentino Tavolazzi, a city councillor in Rimini, advocated a national meeting on behalf of the movement,^[352][353] which gathered about 150 participants. At the meeting, there was both praise and criticism from the participants including from the few politicians who were present.^[354] The meeting took a harsh stance on the "conditions of Regulation M5S" because it was discovered to be in conflict with the statutes of its Civic Party of origin Project for Ferrara. In response, they lost the use of the logo,^[355][356] and were banned from taking any position on behalf of M5S, which was portrayed as a controversial move regarding internal democracy.^{[357][358][359]}

Since 2007, Grillo has criticised the cost of politics by supporting the reduction of payment for deputies and senators.^[360] Based on this policy, the benefits received by members of parliament would not exceed €5,000 gross per month, with any surplus returned to the state with solidarity allowance, also called end-term; however, according to Giovanni Favia, the regional director of the M5S, the deduction of €5,000 gross salary of parliamentarians is contrary to the principles of the movement as it would result in a reduction of only €2,500 net. In an interview published in several newspapers in November 2012, Favia estimated at €11,000 per month the fees prescribed for a member of M5S. The article does not explain how Favia got to deduct that amount because it necessarily includes reimbursements and per diem is not flat as costs and expenses which vary from member to member.^[361]

Following the expulsion of Favia and Federica Salsi for expressing views about the lack of internal democracy, the party has expelled several members for criticism.

Since its entry into Parliament, the M5S has broken up into several breakaway parties:[375]^[376]

• Italy Work in Progress (2014)
• X Movement (2014)
• Free Alternative (2015)
• Italy in Common (2018)
• Team K (2018)
• Italexit (2020)
• Alternative (2021)
• Environment 2050 (2022)
• Together for the Future (2022)

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Election	Leader	Chamber of Deputies					Senate of the Republic
		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position
2013	Beppe Grillo	8,691,406	25.6	109 / 630	–	1st	7,285,850	23.8	54 / 315	–	2nd
2018	Luigi Di Maio	10,732,066	32.7	227 / 630	119	1st	9,733,928	32.2	112 / 315	58	1st
2022	Giuseppe Conte	4,333,972	15.4	52 / 400	175	3rd	4,285,894	15.6	28 / 200	85	3rd

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
2014	Beppe Grillo	5,807,362 (2nd)	21.2	17 / 73	New	EFDD
2019	Luigi Di Maio	4,569,089 (3rd)	17.1	14 / 76	3	NI
2024	Giuseppe Conte	2,336,452 (3rd)	10.0	8 / 76	6	The Left

Region	Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Status in legislature
Aosta Valley	2020	2,589 (9th)	3.9	0 / 35	4	No seats
Piedmont	2024	99,806 (7th)	6.0	3 / 51	2	Opposition
Lombardy	2023	113,229 (8th)	3.9	3 / 80	10	Opposition
South Tyrol	2023	2,086 (13th)	0.7	0 / 35	1	No seats
Trentino	2023	4,523 (13th)	2.0	0 / 35	2	No seats
Veneto	2020	55,281 (6th)	2.7	1 / 50	4	Opposition
Friuli-Venezia Giulia	2023	9,486 (7th)	2.4	1 / 49	3	Opposition
Emilia-Romagna	2024	53,075 (8th)	3.6	1 / 50	1	Majority
Liguria	2024	25,659 (9th)	4.6	1 / 31	1	Opposition
Tuscany	2020	113,386 (4th)	7.0	1 / 40	4	Opposition
Marche	2020	44,330 (4th)	7.1	3 / 30	2	Opposition
Umbria	2024	15,125 (6th)	4.7	1 / 21	–	Majority
Lazio	2023	132,041 (3rd)	8.5	4 / 51	6	Opposition
Abruzzo	2024	40,629 (6th)	7.0	2 / 31	5	Opposition
Molise	2023	10,044 (6th)	7.1	3 / 21	3	Opposition
Campania	2020	233,974 (3rd)	9.9	7 / 50	–	Opposition
Apulia	2020	165,243 (3rd)	9.9	5 / 50	2	Opposition
Basilicata	2024	20,026 (6th)	7.7	2 / 21	1	Opposition
Calabria	2021	49,414 (6th)	6.5	2 / 31	2	Opposition
Sicily	2022	254,974 (3rd)	13.6	11 / 70	9	Opposition
Sardinia	2024	51.129 (3rd)	7.7	8 / 60	2	Majority