Italy's Five Star Movement suffered an unexpected blow after one of its most popular leaders, whose penchant for travel and motorbikes has invited comparisons with Che Guevara, announced he would not stand at the next election.
Alessandro Di Battista, an MP who was tipped as a potential foreign minister and who has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook, told the party faithful that the birth of his first child in September, and a desire to return to writing and travelling, spurred his decision.
“I’ve made a decision not to put myself forward as a candidate in parliament at the next election,” he announced on Facebook. “It’s my choice and it has nothing to do with the movement, which I will always support.”
The 39-year-old politician said he would take part in Five Star’s campaigning as it heads towards the election, expected to be held between March and May, but would not stand for office.
“I want to write and to travel – next summer, after the election campaign is over, I’ll be off to do some reportage. When a baby is born it makes you think about your future, about your dreams and aspirations,” he wrote.
After graduating in international human rights, he spent a year working as a volunteer in Guatemala before joining Five Star and being elected an MP in 2013.
Fans of “Dibba”, as he is nicknamed, were dismayed by the announcement, imploring him to reconsider - a prospect that seemed unlikely.
Mr Di Battista is one of the most high-profile leaders of the Five Star Movement, which wants to hold a referendum on whether Italy should ditch the euro and return to the lira.
He was a confidante and right-hand man to Luigi Di Maio, the party’s 31-year-old candidate for prime minister.
Last year Mr Di Battista embarked on an extensive tour of Italy by moped, addressing crowds of Five Star voters and denouncing the then prime minister, Matteo Renzi, as a buffoon.
Five Star is now in a three-way battle for power with a centre-Right bloc led by former premier Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-Left, led by Mr Renzi, who resigned after losing a referendum on constitutional reform a year ago.
In regional elections in Sicily earlier this month, an alliance of centre-Right parties trounced Five Star, in a vote which was seen as a barometer of public opinion ahead of the general election in the Spring.
The movement fared better last weekend, however, when it beat a centre-Right coalition in a run-off vote in Ostia, a seaside resort near Rome that has been plagued by corruption, crime and the creeping influence of a neo-fascist party called Casa Pound.
There was speculation that Mr Di Battista’s retirement may have been driven by the spectre of Five Star, which has vowed never to ally with another party, performing poorly in the election.
It faces being squeezed out by the Right and Left, which routinely enter into partnerships with smaller parties.
Voter surveys suggest that a centre-Right encompassing Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, the anti-immigration Northern League and the far-Right Brothers of Italy would attract the most votes.
But it would fall short of a parliamentary majority, ensuring complex horse-trading to form a government.