Luigi Di Maio has resigned as leader of Italy's co-governing 5-Star movement, Wednesday, amid falling support and parliamentary defections.  The 33-year-old, who will stay on as Italy's Foreign Minister, told supporters that his resignation represented an end of an era.  

While his resignation is not expected to bring down the government, it underscores deep divisions within 5-Star, certain to damage relations with their coalition partner, the center-left Democratic Party (PD). 

The decision by Di Maio, who is expected to remain as foreign minister, comes days before a regional election in Emilia Romagna in which the far-right League is seeking to end 75 years of uninterrupted PD rule, an outcome that could put the government at risk. 

"Di Maio's resignation is very ominous for the future of the ruling coalition," said Francesco Galietti, head of political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.

"The PD has just announced a major re-branding is in the works and these things, leaders quitting and party overhauls, only happen in Italy when the house is on fire." 

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte earlier said he would respect any decision that Di Maio made. "I am sure he would take such an initiative with great responsibility," Conte told Italian radio RTL 102.5, declining to comment further. 

The anti-establishment 5-Star party won 33 percent of the vote in a national election in 2018, but since then its popularity has waned, with recent polls giving them just 16 percent support. 

After that ballot yielded no clear winner, 5-Star initially formed a coalition with the League, switching to an alliance with the PD last September after League leader Matteo Salvini walked out of government. 

Di Maio, who was just 31 when he was elected 5-Star leader in 2017, was skeptical about joining forces with the PD but, with many of the party's lawmakers opposed to fresh elections, he was persuaded to sign up by 5-Star's founder Beppe Grillo. 

Tensions within the party have been fueled by a perception that Di Maio has failed to share power outside his inner circle of advisers. 

Since the election, more than 30 lower house and senate lawmakers have left 5-Star's parliamentary grouping, some defecting and some being ejected. The exodus has left the government with a wafer-thin majority in the upper house Senate. 

Vito Crimi, a little-known lawmaker who heads 5-Star's internal regulations committee, is expected to take over from Di Maio as a caretaker until a new party chief is named, most probably at the party congress in March.