Meetups On 16 July 2005,
Beppe Grillo suggested through his blog that supporters adopt social networks, such as
Meetup, to communicate and coordinate local meetings. The first "40 Friends of Beppe Grillo" meetups began with the initial aim to "have fun, get together, share ideas and proposals for a better world, starting from one's own city, and discuss and develop my posts, if you believe them". Meetups featured thematic working groups on topics entitled "technology and innovation", "press-communication", "
ethical consumerism", "currency study", "no incinerators", and others. From these beginnings, Grillo was asked to stand in the October 2005
centre-left coalition primaries for the selection of the prime ministerial candidate of
The Union. 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. 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. 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.
V-Days , 2007 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. 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. 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. 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.
Five Star Civic Lists 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. 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. 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. 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). 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. On 9 September 2009, the launch of the National Five Star Movement (M5S), inspired by the ideologies of the Charter of Florence, was announced. 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.
2010–2012 regional and local elections 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). 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. 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. in
Trento during the 2013 electoral campaign 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. In the
2012 Italian local elections, the M5S did well in several cities of the
Northern Italy, notably in
Genoa (14.1%),
Verona (9.5%),
Parma (19.9%),
Monza (10.2%), and
Piacenza (10.0%). 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). In the run-offs, it won the mayorships of Parma (60.2%),
Mira (52.5%), and
Comacchio (69.2%). 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). 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. 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; however, the election was characterised by low participation as only 47.4% of eligible voters turned out to vote.
2013 general election On 29 October 2012, Grillo announced guidelines for candidates wishing to stand in the 2013 general election. For the first time in Italy, the candidates were chosen by party members through an online primary, which took place 3 to 6 December. 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. On 22 February 2013, a large crowd of 800,000 people attended Grillo's final rally before the 2013 general election in
Piazza San Giovanni in
Rome. On 24 and 25 February 2013, the M5S contested all Italian constituencies; Grillo was listed as head of the coalition, although he was not an electoral candidate. The vote for M5S in the
Chamber of Deputies reached 25.55% of the vote in Italy and 9.67% for overseas voters, a total of 8,784,499 votes, making it the second most voted-for list after the PD, which acquired 25.42% of the votes in Italy and 29.9% abroad, or 8,932,615 votes, electing 108 deputies. The M5S vote for the
Senate of the Republic was 23.79% in Italy and 10% abroad, a total of 7,375,412 votes, second only to the PD, which garnered 8,674,893 votes, electing 54 senators. The party gained a higher share of the vote than was predicted by any of the opinion polls. The M5S won 25.6% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, more than any other single party; however, both the centre-left coalition (
Italia. Bene Comune) dominated by the PD, and the PdL-led centre-right coalition, obtained more votes as coalitions. The M5S was the largest party in the
Abruzzo,
Marche,
Liguria,
Sicily, and
Sardinia regions. 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.
2014 European Parliament election Competing in its first European election, with a surge in popularity in February 2013, 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. , 2014 In the run-up to the
Eighth European Parliament term, the M5S lacked a European affiliation and sought a
European parliament group. Initial negotiations were held with
Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) co-president
Nigel Farage and
The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA). On 4 June 2014, The Greens/EFA rejected Grillo's attempts to obtain group membership. On 11 June 2014, the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group rejected the M5S as a potential affiliate in a statement citing the party's perceived
Euroscepticism and
populism. In an online referendum offered to M5S members on 12 June 2014, the choice of European Parliament affiliation offered were
Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), the
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), or to become
Non-Inscrits. Party activists voted 78.1% to join the EFD group. On 18 June 2014, it was announced that the EFD group had enough MEPs to continue into the 8th European Parliament term. On 24 June 2014, M5S MEP
David Borrelli was chosen as the group's new co-president and the EFD group name was amended to
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) for the upcoming parliament. The EFDD group lost its official group status on 16 October 2014 after the defection of Latvian MEP
Iveta Grigule until Polish MEP
Robert Iwaszkiewicz joined the group four days later. 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. 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".
Gianroberto Casaleggio's death The movement's founder and main strategist
Gianroberto Casaleggio died on 12 April 2016 in
Milan, at the age of 61, after a long period of illness due to
brain cancer. After his death, his son Davide was appointed as the president of Casaleggio Associati and took his father's office as leader and strategist of the M5S.
2018 general election For the 2018 general election, the M5S presented a programme whose main points are the introduction of a
basic income, known as the
citizens' income, to fight poverty, a measure that would cost between €15 and €20 billion annually, plus the cut of the public debt by 40 points in relation to
GDP in ten years, the adoption of measures to revitalise youth employment, a cut in pensions of over €5,000 net not entirely based on the contribution method, the reduction of IRPEF rates and the extension of the income tax threshold, and the increase in spending on family welfare measures from 1.5 to 2.5% of GDP. On 4 March, none of the three main groupings, namely the M5S, the centre-right coalition, and the centre-left coalition led by the
Democratic Party (PD), won a majority of seats in the
Italian Parliament, although the M5S became the largest individual party, with 32.7% of the vote and 227 seats in the Chamber. In May, the M5S entered into coalition talks with centre-left PD, but party secretary
Matteo Renzi publicly criticised and rejected the deal being discussed by his fellow party members; the M5S then turned to the
League. The talks resulted in the proposal for the self-described
Government of Change under the leadership of
Giuseppe Conte, a law professor close to the M5S. The formation of the cabinet initially failed on 27 May as President
Sergio Mattarella did not agree on the appointment of
Paolo Savona as the
Italian Minister of Economy and Finance due to his perceived
Euroscepticism. After the 2018 general election, the M5S started a decline in both opinion polls, deputies and senators, and election results, starting with the
2019 European Parliament election. Into the 2018 general election, the M5S proposed a constitutional law that would have obliged
members of parliament to resign if they intend to change party. The M5S had won 227 deputies and 112 senators; by February 2022, the party had declined to 157 deputies and 62 senators, though it remained the biggest party in both houses of
parliament. The first defections came when the deputy
Andrea Mura was removed by the M5S for his abstentionism and later resigned from his duties, while the deputy
Matteo Dall'Osso left the party to join
Forza Italia (FI),
Silvio Berlusconi's
centre-right party, and the senators
Saverio De Bonis and
Gregorio De Falco were ejected due to their opposition to policies of the M5S–League government. Further defections came in 2019, when the deputy
Sara Cunial was ejected after accusing the M5S of "favouring agromafia", the senator
Paola Nugnes, who would later join the
left-wing parliamentary group
Free and Equal (LeU) as an independent representative of the
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), was removed from the M5S after voting against Salvini's decrees on immigration, as did the deputies
Veronica Giannone and
Gloria Vizzini, who opposed some of the M5S–League government's legislation, while the deputy
Davide Galantino, who would later join the right-wing
Brothers of Italy, left the M5S to join the
Mixed Group, as did the senator
Elena Fattori, who joined
Italian Left (SI) in January 2021.
2019 European Parliament election 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. 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. After the results, Di Maio called a
vote of confidence in his leadership after several officials criticised him; transparency of the Rousseau platform, the online platform used by the party, was questioned earlier on in the year. 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.
2019 government crisis In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister
Matteo Salvini announced a
motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Conte after growing tensions within the majority. 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. 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", Prime Minister Conte resigned his post to President
Sergio Mattarella. On 21 August, President Mattarella started the consultations with all the
parliamentary groups. On the same day, the national direction of the PD officially opened to a cabinet with the M5S, In the days that preceded the second round, a confrontation between the PD and the M5S started, while the left-wing
parliamentary group LeU announced its support for a potential M5S–PD cabinet. On 28 August, the PD's newly elected secretary
Nicola Zingaretti announced at the
Quirinal Palace his favourable position on forming a new government with the M5S, with Conte at its head. On the same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet. On 3 September, members of the M5S voted on the Rousseau platform in favour of an agreement with the PD under the premiership of Conte, with more than 79% of votes out of nearly 80,000 voters. On 4 September, Conte announced the ministers of his new cabinet, which was sworn in at the Quirinal Palace on the following day. On 18 September, Renzi left the PD to found the centrist liberal party
Italia Viva (IV); he then joined the government with IV to keep the League and Salvini out of power. 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, the senator
Elena Fattori, who moved to the
Mixed Group and then joined SI in January 2021. Additionally, the education ministry
Lorenzo Fioramonti left the M5S to join the Mixed Group, the senator
Gianluigi Paragone, who would later found the Eurosceptic
Italexit party and was joined by the senators
Carlo Martelli and
Mario Giarrusso, was ejected for voting against the finance bill and for his lack of confidence vote to Conte's second cabinet, the deputies
Nunzio Angiola and
Gianluca Rospi joined the Mixed Group, as did the deputies
Santi Cappellani,
Massimiliano De Toma,
Rachele Silvestri,
Nadia Aprile, and
Michele Nitti, who joined the PD, and the senator
Luigi Di Marzio, while the deputy
Flora Frate was expelled from the M5S for failure to return her salary.
2020 leadership crisis 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. 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.
2021–2022 government crises at the Quirinal Palace 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
Mario Draghi government through the SkyVote platform; 59% voted in favour. The debate over whether to support the
Draghi government led to a split in the party, and the party expelled parliamentarians who voted against Draghi, and would soon found
Alternative, and
ManifestA later in February 2022. Prominent member
Alessandro Di Battista, who opposed the party's decision, left the M5S on 11 February. 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. In May 2021,
Isabella Adinolfi became the eighth MEP to defect from the M5S since the
2019 European Parliament election. In July 2021, the senator
Matteo Mantero left the M5S to join
Power to the People. 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. The M5S suffered significant losses in the
2021 Italian regional elections in October, particularly the mayor of Rome
Virginia Raggi, who was decisively defeated. In November 2021, the senator
Emanuele Dessì left the M5S to join the
Communist Party. On 7 February 2022, the court of Naples suspended the resolutions regarding the change in the M5S statute and the election of Conte as president of the M5S. On 21 June, Di Maio announced a split over foreign policy disagreements with Conte's faction, leading the formation of the
Together for the Future parliamentary group, joined by 51 deputies and 11 senators formerly of M5S. During 2022, rumours arose around a possible withdrawal of M5S's support to the national unity government, including allegations that Draghi privately criticised Conte and asked Grillo to replace him. This came amid tension between the M5S and the Draghi government on economic, environmental, and foreign policy issues. On 12 July, Draghi stated he would resign if the M5S withdraws its support to the government. On 14 July, the M5S revoked the support to the government of national unity regarding a decree concerning economic stimulus to contrast the ongoing energy crisis, leading to a
government crisis, and the collapse of Draghi's government on 21 July. Parliament was dissolved and a
snap election was called for September 2022.
2022 general election 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. As the M5S was blamed by the PD for causing the fall of
Mario Draghi's government, an alliance was excluded from both sides, despite some pressure from the left to maintain the PD–M5S alliance. They remained allies at the regional level, such as in Liguria and Sicily, though not without criticism and issues. 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; their campaign centered around the
minimum wage and in defence of the citizens' income from right-wing criticism. Thanks in part to a strong performance in
southern Italy, the M5S defied single-digits polls in July 2022, obtained 15.4% of the vote and won several single-member constituencies in the South that otherwise would have been won by the centre-right coalition. For the first time since 2018, the M5S returned at the
opposition level and voted against
Giorgia Meloni's government, which had been sworn in on 22 October, in the
confidence vote in both houses of the
Italian Parliament on 25–26 October. Conte said he would lead an "uncompromising opposition" and added: "We will be the outpost for the progressive agenda against inequalities, to protect families and businesses in difficulty, to defend the rights and values of our Constitution."
2024 regional and European Parliament elections In the
2024 Sardinian regional election, former deputy minister
Alessandra Todde was elected
president of Sardinia at the head of a centre-left coalition including the PD, left-wing parties and regional ones. Todde was the first regional president hailing from the M5S. 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.
The constituent assembly and the break with Grillo 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". 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. Grillo, exercising one of his powers provided for by the party statute, thus asked for a repeat of the vote, 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. ==Ideology==