5-Star new leader Luigi Di Maio smiles during an interview with journalists in Rimini, Italy, Sept 24, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

Cutting debt, boosting investment

He said that, if 5-Star won next year's election, due by May, he would try to negotiate changes to European Union fiscal rules to allow Italy to invest more to boost its stagnant economy.

However, he said he would also cut waste, arguing that this was the best way to bring down Italy's huge public debt, forecast to be just under 132 percent of GDP this year, the highest in the euro zone after Greece's.

"We have brought down debt in every town and city where 5-Star governs. We will do that at the national level too," he said.

5-Star has rowed back from a pledge to hold a referendum on Italy's membership of the euro and now says this would only be a last resort if the EU rejects any reforms to current budget rules.

Di Maio, who comes from Italy's poor south and entered parliament at 26 five years ago, after mostly doing odd jobs and internet marketing, dismissed the suggestion that he was too inexperienced to be prime minister.

"I came from a part of Italy with 60 percent youth unemployment, and people who sneer at my background are sneering at thousands of young Italians who are trying to create a future for themselves," he said.

The ability to build a competent team was the most important quality for a prime minister, Di Maio said, vowing to present a full cabinet line-up before the election.

Asked to name three priorities that would mark his leadership of the party, Di Maio listed universal income support for the poor, cutting wasteful public spending and increasing forms of direct democracy.

Reuters