2017 Five Star Movement leadership election

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]