ROME — The biggest obstacle facing the 5Star Movement in its effort to unseat Prime Minister Matteo Renzi by defeating him in December's referendum is its own dismal performance in governing the Italian capital.

The M5S is campaigning for a "No" vote on December 4 to reject Renzi's proposals to reform the constitution. Its hope: force him to keep his promise to step down if he loses, then beat his Democratic Party (PD) in the elections that would likely follow.

What's undoing that strategy is the party's shambolic performance in its biggest executive job so far — running Rome.

Since the M5S's Virginia Raggi was elected mayor in June, the party's seemingly inexorable rise has jammed into reverse. A poll by DEMOS suggested their nationwide support has slipped by 3.4 percentage points in the intervening months.

“Even by Italian political standards, the M5S has made an incredible mess of things so far," said Giovanni Orsina, professor of political history at Rome's Luiss University.

Totally lacking in political experience — and therefore untainted — the telegenic Raggi came to office promising to clean up the Eternal City's corrupt politics and its rubbish-strewn, potholed streets. Crowds welcomed her to the ancient Campidoglio city hall with hopeful cries of "Onestà! Onestà!" ("Honesty! Honesty!").

The desire for a cleaner style of politics has underpinned the anti-establishment party's growth since it was founded by comedian Beppe Grillo in 2009. In the constitutional referendum, its campaign against Renzi's proposal to slash the number of seats in the Italian Senate to 100 from 315 to streamline the legislative process is based on the argument that curtailing the upper house will exacerbate Italy's corruption problems.

In just over three months in power, Raggi has risked unpopularity by following through on her campaign promise to drop Rome's bids for the 2024 Olympics and 2023 Rugby World Cup on the grounds that the city is too broke and corrupt. But it is difficult to point to any achievements, and there has been no shortage of controversy.

Problems began in July, when Raggi angered members of her own party by appointing councilors who had formerly served under the right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is on trial accused of graft and nepotism during his spell at city hall between 2008 and 2013.

Raggi then dismissed her chief of staff, Carla Ranieri, saying her €192,000-a-year salary was not in keeping with the movement's political philosophy. That prompted a spate of resignations from the council, leaving nobody in control of the city's finances, which are about €13 billion in the red, until late September.

The mayor then appeared to invite further criticism by putting the task of cleaning up the city's streets in the hands of Paola Muraro, who is being investigated by prosecutors for potential conflicts of interest during the 12 years she served as an adviser to Rome's waste management authority, AMA.

These episodes have undermined the 5Star Movement's carefully nurtured image of being a cleaner, more honest alternative to the established political parties, as well as highlighting the drawbacks of its non-traditional party structure.

“The M5S operates a form of direct democracy, whereby members organize themselves into local grassroots groups online, via the social network Meetup, in order to decide policy,” said Orsina. “As such, it lacks any internal hierarchy and cannot draw on people from the established 'ruling class' who already have the political experience and wherewithal to govern.”

The PD hopes its opponent's lack of experience will convince voters to return them to power in a hypothetical general election. But with less than two months to the crucial vote, Renzi faced a rift in his own party on Monday when a small but significant minority of the PD, including former party secretary Pier Luigi Bersani and ex-prime minister Massimo D'Alema, came out in favor of a "No" vote at the referendum.

“It's not a great sign. The future is highly unclear and the forces of populism could well prevail in December,” said Democratic Party MP Leonardo Impegno. “But if we find ourselves at another general election, no other party on the current political landscape can come close to our recent track record of delivering responsible reforms, which surely counts in our favor.”

Miracles

The 5Star's problems have not deterred grassroots activists from taking to the streets of Rome and other cities to campaign for a "No" vote in December's constitutional referendum.

“Governing Rome has so far been problematic, but we're not bothered about what opinion polls say,” said Alberto Afflitto, a 40-year-old M5S councillor handing out badges, bumper magnets and window stickers with the hashtag #IODICONO (#I'MSAYINGNO) from a gazebo in Rome's working class Garbatella district.

"Most people can accept that it will take years, not months, for the results of good governance to shine through in this city,” he added.

“It doesn't matter who is in charge, there are no shortcuts to sorting out Rome” — Virginio Carnevali

The failure of successive councils from across the political spectrum to successfully address Rome's underlying problems means the M5S may not pay too high a price at the national level for its teething problems in the capital.

"You can't ask for miracles," said Virginio Carnevali, head of the anti-corruption campaign group Transparency Italy. “Rome is ungovernable.”

Over the last decade, the city's spiralling debt has created rampant corruption inside council-run services, while extensive unionization makes any attempt at implementing swift and effective changes to the way the city's infrastructure is managed almost impossible.

“It doesn't matter who is in charge, there are no shortcuts to sorting out Rome,” said Carnevali.

The M5S hierarchy insists its from-the-bottom-up approach to government will soon start to yield results in Rome. It downplays the crisis talk and accuses the press of trying to discredit the party over fear of its campaign promises to outlaw political funding for the media.

“To read the papers, you would think Raggi had poisoned the city's aqueducts!" — Ignazio Corrao

“To read the papers, you would think Raggi had poisoned the city's aqueducts!" said Ignazio Corrao, a Rome-born MEP who was elected to represent Italy's islands in the European Parliament in 2014, along with 16 other 5Star MEPs. "The movement is young and bound to make mistakes."

With Italy's center-right suffering from something of a leadership vacuum in the post-Berlusconi era, and Renzi's reputation hinging on a vote that is too close to call — irrespective of whether or not he follows through on the threat to resign if he loses — the 5Star Movement is, in theory at least, well-positioned to establish itself as the country's biggest political party.

Competing in its first general election in 2013, the M5S won 25 percent of the vote, forcing the PD to rely on the support of former members of Berlusconi's Forza Italia. It won 21 percent of the vote in European Parliament elections in 2014, then defeated PD candidates in Rome and Turin in June's local elections, and it already has experience of running towns and cities including Livorno and Parma.

“Rome aside, we've already shown we can govern successfully in cities, towns and regions across the country," said Corrao. “I don't want to predict what will happen in December, but either way a M5S government is on the horizon.”