Municipal elections were held in Turin, Piedmont, on 5 June 2016 to elect the mayor of Turin and the 38 members of the City Council of Turin. Chiara Appendino, the candidate of the Five Star Movement (M5S), was elected after defeating the incumbent mayor Piero Fassino in the runoff election on 19 June. As a centre-left coalition stronghold that always elected a centre-left mayor since direct elections began in 1993, Fassino was considered the frontrunner and Appendino's win was an upset. Appendino's win also marked the first win for the M5S in a major Italian city and occurred during a wave of mayoral victories by the M5S in the 2016 Italian local elections. The results were widely reported as a major breakthrough for the M5S, which had previously been seen as a protest party rather than a significant political force.