Italy’s joker turns kingmaker: Beppe Grillo in driving seat
28 Feb 2013 5:07 AM IST
With dozens of new lawmakers from an Italian protest movement still dazed after a shock election success, the party’s former comedian turned activist leader was suddenly in the driving seat on Tuesday.
Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) captured over a quarter of the vote for the lower house, incredibly becoming the biggest individual party in parliament and the number three grouping after the main right and left coalitions.
‘Grillo will play a decisive role. He has to decide whether to strike a limited agreement with the left or whether to go for fresh elections,’ said Roberto D’Alimonte, a politics professor at Rome’s LUISS university.
‘All the cards are in his hands,’ D’Alimonte said.
It is a stunning turn of events for the tousle-haired 64-year-old who has spoken to packed squares across the country during the campaign, channelling the discontent of Italians fed up with austerity and corrupt politicians.
Grillo set up his group in 2009, initially as one of several citizen movements against then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
It was dismissed as a sideshow in Italian politics but it quickly captured youth support with its irreverent and Internet-based campaigning.
As scandals have mounted in recent months in Italy over the massive waste of public funds by politicians showered with perks and cash handouts, the M5S has gained in popularity and become a political force.
The first display of its new power came last year when it won the highest number of votes for any single party in regional elections in Sicily.
In the Sicilian regional government, M5S lawmakers won praise for slashing their own salaries and putting the money into a fund to help small businesses.
They also successfully lobbied against and blocked the installation of a US radar system in a nature reserve – an example of the type of local issue that is often most crucial for the ‘Grillini’ – or ‘little crickets’ – as Grillo’s followers are known.
The party’s platform has been generated through online contributions.
Many of the new lawmakers are very young – some are close to the minimum age of 25 for entering the lower house – and they espouse an eclectic mix of environmental and leftist causes as well as a general anti-sleaze ethos.
Virtually all the candidates were newcomers to politics including students, housewives, doctors, laid-off factory workers and even an astrophysicist.
Supporters say Grillo’s movement has breathed new life into politics but critics warn it is an unpredictable populist group with completely unrealistic aims – like the cancellation of Italy’s debt and a 20-hour working week.
The movement ‘has no spokesman or clear mechanism for deciding on policy,’ said James Walston, a professor at the American University of Rome.
IGNORE ‘CRAZY’ MARKETS: SILVIO
Italy’s post-election political paralysis is spooking financial markets. But former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose strong showing defied pro-Europe pundits who thought he was politically finished, insists a government can be formed. The conservative leader said on Tuesday that Italians should ignore the ‘crazy’ markets. His centre-left rivals won Parliament’s lower house after votes were counted on Monday. But they failed to win an absolute majority in the upper house. Pro-Europe leaders, who were hoping Italy would stay the course of tough economic reforms, are rattled by the prospects of legislative gridlock. Berlusconi says having another election soon won’t solve problems.
Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) captured over a quarter of the vote for the lower house, incredibly becoming the biggest individual party in parliament and the number three grouping after the main right and left coalitions.
‘Grillo will play a decisive role. He has to decide whether to strike a limited agreement with the left or whether to go for fresh elections,’ said Roberto D’Alimonte, a politics professor at Rome’s LUISS university.
‘All the cards are in his hands,’ D’Alimonte said.
It is a stunning turn of events for the tousle-haired 64-year-old who has spoken to packed squares across the country during the campaign, channelling the discontent of Italians fed up with austerity and corrupt politicians.
Grillo set up his group in 2009, initially as one of several citizen movements against then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
It was dismissed as a sideshow in Italian politics but it quickly captured youth support with its irreverent and Internet-based campaigning.
As scandals have mounted in recent months in Italy over the massive waste of public funds by politicians showered with perks and cash handouts, the M5S has gained in popularity and become a political force.
The first display of its new power came last year when it won the highest number of votes for any single party in regional elections in Sicily.
In the Sicilian regional government, M5S lawmakers won praise for slashing their own salaries and putting the money into a fund to help small businesses.
They also successfully lobbied against and blocked the installation of a US radar system in a nature reserve – an example of the type of local issue that is often most crucial for the ‘Grillini’ – or ‘little crickets’ – as Grillo’s followers are known.
The party’s platform has been generated through online contributions.
Many of the new lawmakers are very young – some are close to the minimum age of 25 for entering the lower house – and they espouse an eclectic mix of environmental and leftist causes as well as a general anti-sleaze ethos.
Virtually all the candidates were newcomers to politics including students, housewives, doctors, laid-off factory workers and even an astrophysicist.
Supporters say Grillo’s movement has breathed new life into politics but critics warn it is an unpredictable populist group with completely unrealistic aims – like the cancellation of Italy’s debt and a 20-hour working week.
The movement ‘has no spokesman or clear mechanism for deciding on policy,’ said James Walston, a professor at the American University of Rome.
IGNORE ‘CRAZY’ MARKETS: SILVIO
Italy’s post-election political paralysis is spooking financial markets. But former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose strong showing defied pro-Europe pundits who thought he was politically finished, insists a government can be formed. The conservative leader said on Tuesday that Italians should ignore the ‘crazy’ markets. His centre-left rivals won Parliament’s lower house after votes were counted on Monday. But they failed to win an absolute majority in the upper house. Pro-Europe leaders, who were hoping Italy would stay the course of tough economic reforms, are rattled by the prospects of legislative gridlock. Berlusconi says having another election soon won’t solve problems.
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