In his young career, Luigi Di Maio has managed almost everything. Until recently, he was a shooting star of Italian politics, modest, popular and refreshingly different from the establishment's representatives. One who rushed from one record to the next: Deputy Speaker of Parliament at the age of 26, then Chief of the 5-Star Movement, who voted him 82 per cent to this post, then Deputy Prime Minister, and finally Secretary of State. Today, Luigi Di Maio is only 33 years old, and in his CV, only the post of head of government is missing.
If there were not the stubborn citizens of Umbria.
On Sunday they elected a new prime minister - the regional election became a debacle for Di Maio. Only 7.4 percent of citizens voted for his party. A right-wing led by the Lega won by far the Democratic Party (PD) and 5-star movement alliance.
In late summer, Di Maio still looked like a winner
The Umbria election was the first mood test after the coalition change in Italy in early September. The consequences for Di Maio are correspondingly dramatic. The self-reliance of the young party leader has cracked, the 5-star movement is in a crisis of meaning and desperately looking for a new identity - for a place between right-wing populists and social democrats.
In late summer, Luigi Di Maio still looked like a winner. His former partner, Lega boss Matteo Salvini, had gambled and landed in opposition. The star chairman formed a new alliance with the previously hated Social Democrats of the PD. Europe breathed, the financial markets were relieved, the risky transfer of power seemed successful. And now?
"Regardless of whether we rule with the Lega or the PD, the 5-star movement loses approval," notes Di Maio in frustration. Now a third way must be found. "We are an alternative to the other parties, no supplement".
But how? Before the general election in 2018, Di Maio promised to change the system. Citizens should be the center of attention, corruption and post-guards terminated, and the country finally brought forward. And all this is still transparent and participatory - the members of the movement should, as with the pirates in Germany, have a say in an online platform. The Italians believed him, they cheered him and chose the 5 stars for the largest party in parliament.
Flavio Lo Scalzo / REUTERS
Campaigner Salvini (in September in Pontida): loss of power did not hurt
However, Di Maio did not develop a convincing political profile. Writer Michela Murgia has compared her Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) with tofu, a completely neutral product that changes its taste according to the dish. One could also say: pure opportunism.
The choice of Umbria, a region between Rome and Tuscany, brought di Maio therefore a painful message. His ex-partner Salvini did not hurt the power loss of September, on the contrary: the Lega became the strongest party with 37 percent. His new Social Democrat partners can also be satisfied. They managed a good 22 percent - despite being shaken by a corruption scandal in the region. Correctly punished were only the 5 stars.
Umbria, an Italian swing state ?
Ironically, the strongest partner in terms of mandates in Italy's new coalition will become a shaky candidate. In Rome after the "massacre" ("La Repubblica"), the "earthquake" ("Corriere della Sera") of Umbria, the rumors are already shooting to heaven. The region is already being compared to Ohio by some, an Italian swing state that determines the political direction of the entire country - with no more than 900,000 people living in the area around Assisi.
Others whisper of an imminent reconciliation between Di Maio and Salvini. Or from a sacking of the Prime Minister. Or by a new technocrats government, which has nothing to do after his just finished term at the European Central Bank.
"I am working on implementing our program with this government over the next three years," Di Maio has reassured. But he did not sound confident, rather hectic and disoriented. He is already demanding corrections to the budget, although his coalition decided the figures only in mid-October and sent them to Brussels. Regional electoral alliances with the Social Democrats should not exist after the Umbrian disaster. Recently, they were still considered an important strategy against Salvini, who wants to win another eight regional elections next year.
Beppe Grillo, comedian, founder and still influential patriarch of the 5-star movement, had left only a laconic commentary after the Umbria election. He posted a song by US rock band Soundgarden titled "Black Hole Sun". Since then, puzzles fans who might disappear in the black hole - Di Maio, the 5 stars or the coalition.
