After the United Kingdom's momentous vote to leave the European Union, one of the populist Five Star movement's top officials on Friday urged an Italian referendum on the single European currency.
"We have been arguing since 2013 that we need a referendum on the euro because we citizens did not decide to enter the currency," said Luigi di Maio, a Five Star lawmaker and deputy speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament.
"Today, we citizens need to decide whether to stay in the euro or to withdraw - nor on membership of the EU," he underlined.
Like the 23 June consultative referendum held in the UK on leaving the EU, Italy should hold a similar plebiscite on the euro, argued 29-year-old Di Maio.
The anti-establishment Five-Star movement is the most popular party in Italy enjoying the support of over 32 percent of the electorate against 32 percent for the ruling centre-left Democratic Party, according to a poll by Demos published Friday by left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica.
Five-Star would beat the Democratic Party by nearly 10 percentage points in a national election run-off and Di Maio has more support than any other Italian politician and has overtaken Matteo Renzi, the poll showed.