^A: Since its founding, the media, journalists, bloggers, academics, and commentators have struggled to define the M5S and its political position on the left–right political spectrum, which the M5S rejects, causing it to be described as a "strange political creature". Some labeled it a polymorphous "hybrid-party", while others called it a "movement-party". Politically, it has been described as both New Right (mainly due to its anti-immigration and Eurosceptic views in the 2010s) and New Left (non-Marxist egalitarianism that had been present since its founding, alongside other left-leaning policies, which gained more weight since the late 2010s and early 2020s). Generally, there is agreement that the M5S is a populist party, and that it has a big tent and syncretic nature; since its opening to the centre-left coalition and to the left in the late 2010s and early 2020s, some observers place it on the left-wing of the political spectrum and have begun to consider it as left-wing populist.[2]
In November 2014, Grillo appointed a directory composed of five leading members: Alessandro Di Battista, Luigi Di Maio, Roberto Fico, Carla Ruocco, and Carlo Sibilia.[24][25] It lasted until the following October when Grillo dissolved it and proclaimed himself the political head of the M5S.[26] From the foundation until 2021, Grillo also formally served as president of the association named Five Star Movement; his nephew Enrico Grillo served as vice-president and his accountant Enrico Maria Nadasi as secretary.[27][28] In the 2017 M5S leadership election, Di Maio was voted in an online primary with 82% of the vote as political head and candidate for Prime Minister, while Grillo continued to be M5S's guarantor.[29][30] In January 2018, Grillo separated his own blog, which was used the party's online newspaper, with the brand-new Blog delle Stelle.[31] After the 2021 M5S leadership election, a new statute was approved and Conte became the new president, while Grillo continued to be the guarantor of the movement.[32] During the years, the M5S went through several splits, most recently and notably in June 2022, when Di Maio formed Together for the Future.[33]
In the 2013 Italian general election, the M5S was the second-most popular single party and the third-most popular grouping, behind the centre-left coalition and the centre-right coalition.[34] The M5S turned down a coalition offer with the centre-left coalition and entered opposition.[35][36] In 2016, Chiara Appendino and Virginia Raggi, both members of the M5S, were elected mayors of Turin and Rome, respectively.[37] The M5S opposed the reforms proposed in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum.[38] In the 2018 Italian general election, the M5S became the largest party in the Italian Parliament,[39][40][41] and has since been part of government with both right-wing and left-wing coalitions.[42][43] The 2022 Italian general election saw a strong decrease in support for the party, which scored 15% and was the third most voted party but due the electoral law was the fourth party by seats in Parliament, where they sat at the opposition.[44] Thanks in part to a strong performance in Southern Italy, the M5S defied single-digits polls in July 2022,[45] and they won single-member constituencies in the South that otherwise would have been won by the centre-right coalition.[46][47] In the 2024 Sardinian regional election, the M5S candidate Alessandra Todde was elected president of Sardinia, the party's first regional president and the region's first female president,[48][49] at the head of a centre-left coalition.[50]