Leader of the M5S, minister and deputy prime minister: the rise, decline (and rebirth) of Luigi Di Maio

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Luigi Di Maio, 36, was the leader of the Five Star Movement and Minister of the Republic. After breaking with the Movement, he failed to be re-elected as a deputy and therefore ended his parliamentary career prematurely. However, the appointment as EU envoy for the Gulf proposed by European High Commissioner Borrell is an opportunity for him to return to the scene as a protagonist.

In the XVII legislature (2013-2018) he held the role of vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, the youngest ever. In the general elections of 2018 he was re-elected deputy for the XVIII legislature (2018-2022), during which he held the roles of Minister of Economic Development and Labor and Social Policies, as well as Deputy Prime Minister, in the Conte I government (2018-2019), then as Foreign Minister in the Conte II government (2019-2021) and in the Draghi government (2021-2022).

Due to the contrasts with the Movement (from which he had already resigned as political leader on 22 January 2020), he left it in June 2022 together with the parliamentarians in the second legislature or close to Di Maio, creating the centrist parliamentary group Together for the future , which in turn gave birth to the Civic Commitment party, with which Di Maio presented himself, within the center-left coalition, in the 2022 general elections, in which, however, he was not re-elected, thus ending the his parliamentary career.

In 2007 he joined the Movimento 5 Stelle. After having participated in the parliamentarians of the 5 Star Movement, in 2013 he was nominated and elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Campania 1 constituency on the list of the 5 Star Movement. In 2013, with 173 votes, he was elected vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, becoming, at 26 years of age, the youngest person in Italy to have held this role.

Born in Avellino and raised in Pomigliano d’Arco, he is the son of a building contractor. He graduated from the classical high school in 2004 and then began his university studies in law without completing them.