The anti-establishment and eurosceptic party Five Star, founded by stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo in 2009, has emerged as Italy’s first party, gaining more than 31 per cent of the vote.
It became clear since the first projections, shared yesterday night by pollsters around 11.30pm local time (10.30pm GMT), that the party led by 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio was on course to position itself as the lynchpin of the next Italian government.
One of the Movement’s leading members Alessandro Di Battista highlighted yesterday night the party’s now advantageous position in one of the first post-vote declarations.
He said: “If these numbers will be confirmed, they would represent a triumph for Five Star Movement, a real apotheosis, it will show how well we have done our job so far.
“Most importantly, it will show that everybody now will have to come and speak to us, for the first time, all other parties will have to come and speak to us following our methods of transparency and credibility.”
Five Star have won around a third of all votes, making a big gain from Italy’s last elections in 2013, when they gathered 25 per cent.
The party performed particularly well in southern and less developed parts of the country, where they gained the favour of the unemployed and those who felt let down by mainstream politicians.
Latest projection results show that in Sicily and Sardinia Five Star might be on their way to gain all the available constituencies.
Fellow eurosceptic Nigel Farage congratulated the strong result of the Movement on Twitter during the night.
He wrote: “Congratulations to my colleagues in the European Parliament @Mov5Stelle for topping the poll tonight”.
The grassroots party’s success came despite the criticisms received over what has been seen by the establishment as mismanagement of the cities where it controls the mayor’s offices, Rome and Turin, over some of its members involvement with masonic lodges and over a financial scandal.
The party succeeded especially among young voters thanks to its ability to deploy digital campaign strategies.
One party official said: “One of our strengths was the ability to create a dense network on social media.
“We have a lot of different personalities within the movement whose posts have been shared again and again.
“We were truly able to interact with our supporters.”
Winner Mr Di Maio said he wants to wait for the final results to be official before giving his first declaration, but could not hide his happiness behind the scene in the party’s headquarters in Rome, where he was filmed yesterday night celebrating with fellow party member Mr Di Battista celebrating with hugs and pumped fists.
The Italian political scenario is far from being clear, as the vote didn’t produce an outright winner.
Yet, the Five Star are now in a winning position, as they will be pivotal to the creation of the next Italian government.
Mr Di Maio will now enter talks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and together they will consider the possible alliances able to create a stable and working parliament.
One of the possible outcomes could consist in an all-populist coalition with eurosceptic Lega, which also performed well and outdid its main ally in the centre-right wing coalition Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, gaining more than 17 per cent of the votes.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has been visiting Italy to “watch and learn” from the elections, recently said he is hoping for a similar outcome, which would “scare Brussels to death”.