Of 67 064 eligible voters, more than 92 percent chose the lawyer as party leader, as the movement announced on Friday evening. The formerly independent lawyer was Prime Minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021, before the governing coalition broke up and Mario Draghi took over as Prime Minister.
Since January 2020, the star movement has been without real leadership when the then party leader and current foreign minister Luigi Di Maio resigned. Vito Crimi has been interim manager since then. Actually, the five stars wanted to clarify the leadership issue weeks ago. Quarrels between Conte and the party co-founder Beppe Grillo had delayed that. Grillo accused the 56-year-old Conte of having no political vision.
The populist movement is considered an anti-establishment party. It has four ministers in Draghi’s current multi-party alliance. He will do everything possible to restore politics to its “dignity”, said Conte. “Politics, as I have personally determined, is a noble, very noble undertaking.” (SDA)