Lorenzo Fioramonti, a 40-year-old economics professor at the University of Pretoria, was named as a candidate for the March 4 elections by party bosses tonight.
He has already met foreign officials on 5-Star’s behalf and is due to travel with party leader Luigi Di Maio to the City of London’s over the next few days.
Mr Fioramonti enthusiastically backed 5-Star’s criticism of European Union rules, especially the Fiscal Compact which imposes budget cuts on high-debt countries like Italy.
He said: ”I imagine changing the treaties, parameters and other things that are strangling our economy today.”
His party has backed away from a pledge to hold a referendum on the euro, which had rattled financial markets, in the hope of garnering more support.
The 5-Star movement was founded by stand-up comic Beppe Grillo and has ridden a wave of dissatisfaction with conventional politics to become Italy’s most popular party.
But it is still fighting accusations of incompetence and inexperience from its mainstream rivals ahead of the election.
Among the candidates presented alongside Mr Fioramonti were Angelo Cirulli, a businessman who lost his savings in a 2015 state bank bailout, and Olympic bronze medallist and judo coach Felice Mariani.
Mr Di Maio said: “These aren’t competent people, they are super-competent.
“We firmly believe you need to put both head and heart into public policy. You need abilities but you also need sensitivity, humanity.”
Mr Cirulli, one of thousands of retail investors who lost their savings during a state rescue of four regional banks, will be standing in the the same Rome constituency where Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will run for the Democratic Party.
Opinion polls suggest 5-Star will get more votes than any other party but come in behind a centre-right alliance headed by former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Neither group looks set to win enough votes for a working majority, raising the chances there will be more talks to form alliances.