Next Italian general election

As a result of the hung parliament, protracted negotiations were required before a new government could be formed. The talks between the M5S and the League resulted in the proposal of the self-declared Government of Change under the leadership of Giuseppe Conte, a university law professor close to the M5S.[12] After some bickering with President Sergio Mattarella,[13][14] Conte's cabinet, which was dubbed by the media as Western European "first all-populist government",[15][16][17] was sworn in on 1 June.[18]

The European Parliament elections, held in May 2019, were a win for the League, which obtained 34 percent of the vote and 20 seats, more than any other party in the country.[19] In August 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini announced a motion of no confidence against Conte after growing tensions within the majority.[20][21] Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve the League's standing in the Italian Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next Prime Minister.[22] On 20 August, following the parliamentary debate in which he accused Salvini of being a political opportunist who "had triggered the political crisis only to serve his personal interest",[23] Prime Minister Conte resigned his post to President Mattarella.[24]

After the 2018 general election, the M5S started a decline in both opinion polls, deputies and senators, and election results, starting with the 2019 European Parliament election in Italy.[25] After the meagre results, Di Maio won a vote of confidence in his leadership and pledged to reform the party.[26][27] In the general election held in March 2018, the M5S had won 227 deputies and 112 senators; by February 2022, the party had declined to 157 deputies and 62 senators, though it remained the biggest party in the parliament.[2][3] Defections gave parliamentary representation to Alternative,[28] the Communist Party, the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC),[29] Italexit,[30] and Power to the People (PaP).[31]

On 21 August, President Mattarella started the consultations with all the parliamentary groups. On the same day, the national direction of the PD officially opened to a cabinet with the M5S,[23] based on pro-Europeanism, a green economy, sustainable development, the fight against economic inequality, and a new immigration policy.[32] As the talks resulted in an unclear outcome, President Mattarella announced a second round of consultation for 27 or 28 August.[33]

Conte during the 2020 Festa della Repubblica, wearing a protection mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has deeply affected Italy

In the days that preceded the second round, a confrontation between the PD and the M5S started,[34] while the left-wing parliamentary group LeU announced that its support for a potential M5S–PD cabinet.[35] On 28 August, the PD's newly elected secretary Nicola Zingaretti announced at the Quirinal Palace his favorable position on forming a new government with the M5S, with Conte at its head.[36] On the same day, Mattarella summoned Conte to the Quirinal Palace for 29 August to give him the task of forming a new cabinet.[37] On 3 September, members of the M5S voted on the Rousseau platform in favor of an agreement with the PD under the premiership of Conte, with more than 79% of votes out of nearly 80,000 voters.[38] On 4 September, Conte announced the ministers of his new cabinet, which was sworn in at the Quirinal Palace on the following day.[39] On 18 September, Renzi left the PD to found the liberal party Italia Viva (IV); he then joined the government with IV to keep the League and Salvini out of power.[40]

In October 2019, Parliament approved the Fraccaro Reform, named after Riccardo Fraccaro, the M5S deputy who was the bill's first signatory.[41] The fourth and final vote in the Chamber of Deputies came on 8 October 2019, with 553 votes in favor and 14 against. In the final vote, the bill was supported by both the majority and the opposition;[42] only the liberal party More Europe (+Eu) and other small groups voted against.[43] The reform provided a cut in the number of MPs, which would shrink from 630 to 400 deputies and from 315 to 200 senators.[44] On 20–21 September 2020, Italians largely approved the reform with nearly 70% of votes.[45]

In January 2020, Italy became one of the countries worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[46] Conte's government was the first in the Western world to implement a national lockdown to stop the spread of the disease.[47][48] Despite being widely approved by public opinion,[49] the lockdown was also described as the largest suppression of constitutional rights in the history of the Italian Republic.[50][51][52]

In January 2021, Renzi's IV withdrew its support for Conte's government, starting a government crisis.[53] Although Conte was able to win confidence votes in Parliament in the subsequent days, he chose to resign due to failing to reach an absolute majority in the Senate.[54] After negotiations to form a third Conte cabinet failed, Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, became Prime Minister on 13 February at the head of a national unity government composed of independent technocrats and politicians from the League, M5S, PD, FI, IV, and LeU.[55][56]

In March 2021, the PD's secretary Zingaretti resigned after growing tensions within the PD, with the party's minority accusing him for the management of the government crisis.[57] Many prominent members of the party asked to former Prime Minister Enrico Letta to become the new leader; on 14 March, he was elected as the new secretary by the PD's national assembly.[58][59] In August 2021, Conte was elected president of the M5S.[60] In February 2022, a Naples' court ruled in favour of three M5S activists, suspending Conte's presidency.[61] On 19 February, Conte appealed to the court's decision,[62] on the grounds that he was not aware of the 2018 party statute, which provided for the exclusion from voting of those who had joined the M5S for less than six months, and the voting procedure was valid.[63] In 2019, several M5S officials had criticized former leader Di Maio after the transparency of the Rousseau's platform, the online platform used by the party, questioned earlier on in the year.[64]

In the presidential election held in late January 2022,[65][66][67] President Mattarella was re-elected, despite having ruled out a second term, after the governing parties asked him to do so when no other candidate was viable.[68][69][70] In February 2022, four former M5S deputies (Silvia Benedetti, Yana Ehm, Doriana Sarli, and Simona Suriano) formed the parliamentary group ManifestA, a merge of the PaP and PRC parties,[71] whose name echoes The Communist Manifesto with a female pronoun as an invitation to mobilisation.[72]