Italian politician Luigi Di Maio is currently the Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies. He was chosen to lead the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which was started by irreverent populist comedian Beppe Grillo, to a historic victory in the 2018 Italian election with a 32.5% vote share. Despite being the only party, it was unable to secure the necessary 40% of the vote, resulting in a hung parliament. As a result, the alliance of Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia pledged support for Lega leader Matteo Salvini to take office. However, the shock that more than 50% of the votes went to Eurosceptic parties caused people to fear about the future of the European Union. Before joining Beppe Grillo’s M5S, Luigi Di Maio had helped form the political organization “Friends of Beppe Grillo.” Despite frequently being referred to as the most institutional and pragmatic, he is the least populist Five Star politician despite being the son of a former neo-fascist leader. He is typically regarded as the movement’s moderate and governmental faction’s leader.
Early Childhood & Life
The second-largest municipality in Italy, Pomigliano d’Arco, is where Luigi Di Maio was born on July 6, 1986. His parents are Antonio, a builder, and his wife, a Latin and Italian teacher. In the 1980s and 1990s, his father—who was the leader of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI)—tried unsuccessfully three times to get elected to the city council.
He received his diploma from the Vittorio Imbriani classical lyceum in 2004 and afterward enrolled at the Federico II University of Naples’ Faculty of Engineering, eventually changing his major to law. He never finished college, but he was a founder of the student unions at both universities.
Although he was registered as a journalism apprentice in 2007, he has never held a professional career. He spent a brief time as a steward and webmaster at the San Paolo Stadium in Naples.
The eldest of three sons, he co-founded with architect sister Rosalba the construction firm Ardima srl, which he owns 50% of. However, his father, a building contractor, runs the business, and Luigi holds no operational positions there.
Politics as a career
Luigi Di Maio was elected president of the student council and a faculty adviser in 2007. He established the political organization “Friends of Beppe Grillo” that same year in favor of the irreverent populist comedian Beppe Grillo, who criticized nepotism in Italian politics.
He was one among its ardent supporters when Beppe Grillo established the anti-establishment party “Five Star Movement” (M5S) two years later, in October 2009. In 2010, he made an introduction to the city council, however, he only received 59 votes.
The party received a lot of backing from disgruntled voters in the 2013 elections, garnering close to 9 million votes and upending Italy’s political system. He became the youngest Vice President to ever be elected into the lower chamber of the Italian Parliament in that year when he was elected at the age of 26 and a half years old.
With its unconventional strategy of leveraging the internet and social media platforms to track voter mood in order to swiftly reach a larger audience, the party experienced tremendous growth. The party, which is renowned for hosting online primaries, has come under fire for endorsing politicians via phony primaries with scant real options.
The populist movement opposed Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s efforts to enact significant constitutional revisions in December 2016. In a referendum, the majority of Italian voters rejected the proposed legislative changes, prompting Renzi to concede defeat and resign, which toppled the government.
Beppe Grillo declared in 2017 that he will start running for office in the 2018 election, although he made it clear that he would not be a candidate for prime minister. As a result, Luigi Di Maio became the Five Star Party’s front-runner candidate for prime minister.
Other prominent M5S members, like Alessandro Di Battista and Roberto Fico, later declared they would not seek reelection. Senator Elena Fattori and a number of unidentified local councilors were Luigi’s challengers in the contentious online primary.
After winning the primary elections with more than 82% of the vote, he was ultimately chosen as the M5S’s political leader and candidate for prime minister in September 2017. However, several political parties have condemned the primaries as being a “fake” ballot, including the Democratic Party, Lega Nord, and Forza Italia.
Luigi Di Maio’s unexpected victory in the 2018 Italian election demonstrated that Grillo made the correct decision by having faith in him. With about one-third of the vote, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, led by Di Maio, was declared the party with the most votes.
Despite their enormous victory, the party fell short of the 40% majority threshold, forcing Di Maio to consider coalition options even if it went against the party’s ideals. He lost out on becoming prime minister when Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia declared their support for Lega leader Matteo Salvini.
Bigger Works of Luigi Di Maio
Luigi Di Maio led the anti-establishment Five Star Movement to 32.5% of the vote in the 2018 Italian election, securing a resounding win. It became the single largest party in the Italian election with nearly one-third of the votes.
Personal Legacy & Life
After Silvia Virgulti was chosen by Grillo to be a television coach for politicians, Luigi Di Maio started dating her in 2014. She is a communication strategist and is ten years older than he is. She had landed the position by making an impression on him with her piece on the study of certain lawmakers’ posture mistakes in front of the cameras on talk shows.
She started to occasionally act as his advisor as their friendship grew during those courses offered in Rome. He received criticism for his public display of affection for her by reading the letter she had sent to him prior to speaking on the Senate floor.
In a press appearance in November 2017, Di Maio said they had already split up a month earlier but had kept in touch well. The intimate relationship they shared, he said, was hampered by their busy schedules, which led to their amicable separation. Nevertheless, they wished each other well.
Trivia
Following a police report made on July 12, 2017, by Marika Cassimatis, a former M5S candidate for mayor of Genoa, Luigi Di Maio was being investigated for suspected defamation. Beppe Grillo, the leader of the M5S, and his deputy Alessandro Di Battista were both charged with defamation after they altered the rules to permit candidates under investigation to run for president, which benefited Di Maio in particular.
He has previously denounced the benefit of parliamentary immunity and vowed never to use it. However, he made a U-turn and abused the opportunity after being charged with defamation by journalist Elena Polidori on July 28, 2017.
Luigi Di Maio Net Worth
One of the wealthiest and most well-liked politicians is Luigi Di Maio. Our examination of data from sources including Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider indicates that Luigi Di Maio’s net worth is about $1.5 million.