Virginia Raggi has been elected as Rome’s first female mayor in a triumph for the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), representing a blow to Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister. Raggi swept into City Hall on Sunday with two-thirds of the votes cast in a runoff contest with Roberto Giachetti of Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (DP). A lawyer and local councillor, Raggi has leapt from anonymity to become one of the best-known faces in Italian politics in the space of only a few months on the campaign trail.

M5S has emerged as the main opposition to Renzi’s coalition and success in Rome could provide a platform for a tilt at national power in general elections due in 2018.

Movimento Cinque Stelle, or the Five Star Movement, is a populist, anti-establishment, and Euro-skeptic party co-founded in 2009 by popular Italian comedian Beppe Grillo. M5S secured several mayoral victories across Italy, including in Turin, where Chiara Appendino became that city’s first female mayor.

The prime minister took office in 2014 promising to revitalise Italy, but he has struggled to boost economic growth and create jobs after years of stagnation. He has also been hurt by repeated scandals in the banking sector.