2017 Five Star Movement leadership election

The 2017 Five Star Movement leadership election was an Italian online primary election held on 21 September 2017 that determined the M5S candidate to the premiership for the 2018 Italian general election.^[1]

After the election, the 31 years old Luigi Di Maio was elected candidate to the premiership and political head of the movement.^[2]

Background

The party's leader Beppe Grillo, would campaign in the 2018 election, but he would not be the candidate for the position of Prime Minister, even if many critics accused him of being, in case of an electoral win, the de facto head of the government. The Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Luigi Di Maio, was widely considered as the "front runner" and the most likely candidate for the premiership of Italy.^[3]

Luigi Di Maio had been often labeled as the most pragmatic and "institutional", but also the less populist, Five Star politician; he is the son of a member of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement and he is considered the leader of the moderate and "governmental" faction of the movement.^[4]^[5]

No other leading members of the M5S, such as Alessandro Di Battista (a populist politician, personal friend of Di Maio) or Roberto Fico (leader of the M5S left-wing faction and rival of Di Maio and Di Battista), ran for the office.^[6]

Di Maio's opponents were the Senator Elena Fattori (Vice President of the 9th Permanent Senate Committee) and six other city councilors.^[7] Many of them were almost unknown and this caused a lot of criticism, both from the Democratic Party, Lega Nord and Forza Italia,^[8] which considered this ballot a false primary election, with the only aim of appointing Di Maio as M5S candidate without any real challenger.^[9]

Candidates

Major candidates

Portrait	Name		Most recent position	Refs
		Luigi Di Maio (1986– )	Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies (2013–incumbent) Other positions Member of the Chamber of Deputies (2013–incumbent)	^[10]^[11]
		Elena Fattori (1966– )	Member of the Senate of the Republic (2013–incumbent) Other positions None	^[12]^[13]

Other candidates

	Details and notes	Refs
Vincenzo Cicchetti	Member of the Rimini City Council	^[14]
Andrea Davide Frallicciardi	Member of the Figline Valdarno City Council	^[15]
Domenico Ispirato	Member of the Verona City Council	^[16]
Gianmarco Novi	Member of the Monza City Council	^[17]
Nadia Piseddu	Member of the Vignola City Council	^[18]
Marco Zordan	Member of the Sarego City Council	^[19]

Results

Candidate		Votes	%
	Luigi Di Maio	30,936	82.62%
	Elena Fattori	3,596	9.60%
	Nadia Piseddu	1,410	3.77%
	Gianmarco Novi	543	1.45%
	Marco Zordan	373	1.00%
	Vincenzo Cicchetti	274	0.73%
	Andrea Davide Frallicciardi	168	0.45%
	Domenico Ispirato	102	0.27%
Total votes		37,442	100.0
Source: Blog di Beppe Grillo

Vote

Di Maio			82.62%
Fattori			9.60%
Piseddu			3.77%
Novi			1.45%
Zordan			1.00%
Cicchetti			0.73%
Frallicciardi			0.45%
Ispirato			0.27%

References

[1] "Il candidato premier del Movimento 5 Stelle". Archived from the original on 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2017-09-21.

[2] M5s, Di Maio eletto candidato premier e nuovo capo politico. Ma alle primarie votano solo in 37 mila

[3] Aldo Giannuli, storico consigliere di Grillo e Casaleggio: "Primarie bulgare per far vincere Di Maio"

[4] Luigi Di Maio e i soliti ignoti. Un big e sette innocui carneadi alla corsa alla premiership M5S

[5] M5s, i due padri fascisti antesignani del "vaffa": il lessico familiare di Di Maio e Di Battista

[6] M5s, no di Fico e Di Battista: 7 candidati premier sfidano Di Maio

[7] M5s, primarie in rete: 8 candidati premier. La senatrice Fattori sfida Di Maio. Rinunciano Fico, Morra e Di Battista

[8] M5S. Oggi si vota il candidato premier. Sette 'sconosciuti' sfidano Di Maio

[9] Un nome forte e percentuali bulgare: primarie M5s copiate (male) da Pd e Lega

[10] Verso le elezioni, primarie M5S: il rebus per incoronare Di Maio

[11] M5S, primarie blindate per Di Maio: chi perde non potrà candidarsi in Parlamento

[12] Candidato – Elena Fattori

[senate-13] Scheda di attività – Elena Fattori

[14] Candidato – Vincenzo Cicchetti^{[permanent dead link]}

[15] Candidato – Andrea Davide Frallicciardi^{[permanent dead link]}

[16] Candidato – Domenico Ispirato^{[permanent dead link]}

[17] Candidato – Gianmarco Novi^{[permanent dead link]}

[18] Candidato – Nadia Piseddu

[19] Candidato – Marco Zordan^{[permanent dead link]}

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