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Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio
Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has resigned from the Five Star Movement after disputes within his party.
»Today I and many other colleagues are leaving the Five Star Movement.
We are leaving what will no longer be the first force in Parliament tomorrow," said the 35-year-old late Tuesday evening in Rome.
His exit from the party follows disputes between him and the former prime minister and current star boss Giuseppe Conte, including over arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Di Maio is said to support the political line taken by non-party Prime Minister Mario Draghi on the war in Ukraine.
Conte, on the other hand, had recently called for no more weapons to be delivered to Ukraine and instead to rely on diplomacy.
Di Maio himself led the Five Star Movement for almost three years from 2017 until he announced his resignation in January 2020.
The often fractious anti-establishment party was then led by an interim leader until Giuseppe Conte was elected the new party leader in August after resigning as prime minister in January 2021.
According to media reports, Di Maio now wants to take supporters of his camp from the Five Star Movement with him to the new party Insieme per il futuro (Together for the future).
The Five Star Movement has been the largest party in Italy's bicameral parliament since the 2018 general election and co-rules the cabinet of Draghi's multi-party government.
The party suffered a significant defeat in the last local elections.
dam/dpa/Reuters