Beppe Grillo Wants To Give Italy Democracy

international | politics / elections | other press Wednesday February 27, 2013 22:08 by T

Automatic Earth blog covers Beppo of the M5S movement in Italy

In the recent elections in Italy the new movement M5S led by the former Italian comedian Beppo Grillo has gained 108 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies and 54 in the Senate. It is hard to get an accurate picture of who he is and what he wants from the mainstream media since they see him as a challenge to the system and will gladly misrepresent him. In this article it reports on the account given at The Automatic Earth blog where Nicole Foss met Beppo Grillo in Italy and gives her view on him, his movement and what they are trying to achieve.

"The internet is central to Grillo's ideas. Not only as a tool to reach out to people, but even more as a way to conduct direct democracy. Because that is what he seeks to create: a system where people can participate directly. Grillo wants to bring (back) democracy, the real thing, and he's long since understood that the internet is a brilliant tool with which to achieve that goal."

Beppo Grillo - leader of M5S movement in Italy

In the fall of 2011 while Nicole Foss was on a speaking tour of Italy she managed to arrange an interview with Beppo Grillo which turned out to be in his home above the hills of Genoa in Northern Italy. What she has to say is interesting because I would imagine you would be hard pressed to find such a positive report in the press.

Clearly Beppo Grillo is saying and doing the right thing and is making a connection with people given his movement have done very well in the elections during the past few days in Italy.

Here are some of they key paragraphs that Nicole had to say about the man with the first paragraph covering her meeting with him and then it leads on to some explanation about the movement and its origins.

I don't speak Italian, and Beppe doesn't speak much English (or French, German, Dutch), so it was at times a bit difficult to communicate. Not that it mattered much, though; Beppe Grillo has been a super charged Duracell bunny of an entertainer and performer all his life, and he will be the center of any conversation and any gathering he's a part of no matter what the setting.....
......And so we spent a wonderful afternoon in Genoa, and managed to find out a lot about our very entertaining host and his ideas and activities.

Beppe had set up his Five Star movement (MoVimento Cinque Stelle, M5S) a few years prior. He had been organizing V-day "happenings" since 2007, and they drew those huge crowds. The V stands for "Vaffanculo", which can really only be translated as "F**k off" or "Go f**k yourself": the driving idea was to get rid of the corruption so rampant in Italian politics, and for all sitting politicians to go "Vaffanculo".

At the time we met, the movement was focusing on local elections - they have since won many seats, have become the biggest party on Sicily (after Beppe swam there across the Straits of Messina from the mainland) and got one of their own installed as mayor of the city of Parma.

Grillo explained that M5S is not a political party, and he himself doesn't run for office. He wants young people to step forward, and he's already in his sixties. Anyone can become a candidate for M5S, provided they have no ties to other parties, no criminal record (Beppe does have one through a 1980 traffic accident); they can't serve more than two terms (no career politicians) and they have to give back 75% of what they get paid for a public function (you can't get rich off of politics).


And then in the next few paragraphs she begins to give her view on him and the movement.

By the way, the Five Stars, perhaps somewhat loosely translated, stand for energy, information, economy, transport and health. What we found during our conversation is that Beppe Grillo's views on several topics were a little naive and unrealistic. For instance, like so many others, he saw a transition to alternative energy sources as much easier than it would realistically be. That said, energy and environment issues are important for him and the movement, and in that regard his focus on decentralization could carry real benefits.

Still, I don't see the present naive ideas as being all that bad. After all, there are limits to what people can do and learn in a given amount of time....


And then onto the politics...

We are- almost - all of us living in non-functioning democracies, but in Italy it's all far more rampant and obvious. There's a long history of deep-seated corruption, through the mafia, through lodges like P5 and Opus Dei, through many successive governments, and through the collaboration between all of the above, so much so that many Italians just see it as a fact of life. And that's what Beppe Grillo wants to fight.
..................
Beppe is called a populist for rejecting both right and left wing parties, a neo-nazi for refusing to block members of a right wing group from M5S, a Jew hater in connection with the fact that his beautiful wife was born in Iran, and a dictator because he's very strict in demanding potential M5S candidates adhere to the rules he has set. Oh, and there are the inevitable right wing people calling him a communist. -


And then onto how he operates and what his plans for change and democracy are. ...clearly this man doesn't give a fuck about the establishment.


After being banned from TV, Grillo went on the build one of the most visited blogs/websites in the world, and the number one in Europe. Ironically, he is now in some media labeled something of a coward for not appearing in televised election debates. But Beppe doesn't do TV, or - domestic - newspapers. For more than one reason.

Because he was banned from TV, because of the success of the internet campaign, and because Silvio Berlusconi incessantly used "lewd" talk shows on his own TV channels to conduct politics, Beppe Grillo insists his councilors and candidates stay off TV too, and he has his own unique way of making clear why and how: When a female Five Star member recently ignored this and appeared on a talk show anyway, Grillo said "the lure of television is like the G-spot, which gives you an orgasm in talk-show studios. It is Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame. At home, your friends and relations applaud emotionally as they share the excitement of a brief moment of celebrity.". Of course Beppe was labeled a sexist for saying this.

The internet is central to Grillo's ideas. Not only as a tool to reach out to people, but even more as a way to conduct direct democracy. Because that is what he seeks to create: a system where people can participate directly. Grillo wants to bring (back) democracy, the real thing, and he's long since understood that the internet is a brilliant tool with which to achieve that goal. One of his spear points is free internet access for all Italians. Which can then be used to let people vote on any issue that can be voted on. Not elections once every four years or so, but votes on any topic anytime people demand to vote on it. Because we can.
.................
As was the case in the local elections, Beppe Grillo says he wants "normal" people ("a mother of three, a 23-year-old college graduate, an engineer [..] those are the people I want to see in parliament") to be elected, not career politicians who enrich themselves off their status and influence, and who he labels "the walking dead", and though he acknowledges his candidates have no political experience, he says: "I'd rather take a shot in the dark with these guys than commit assisted suicide with those others." In the same vein, another one of his lines is:"The average age of our politicians is 70. They're planning a future they're never going to see".


And her final summary

Beppe Grillo wants to break that chain. And he's got a recipe to do it. It may not be perfect or foolproof, but who cares when it's replacing something that no longer functions at all, that just drags us down and threatens our children's lives? Who cares? Well, the Monti's and Berlusconi's and Merkel's and Obama's and Exxon's and BP's and Monsanto's of the world do, because it is the old system that gave them what they have, and they don't want a new one that might take it away. Our so-called democracies exist to please our leaders and elites, not ourselves. And we're unlikely to figure that one out until it's way too late.


The website for Modena 5 Stelle is at: http://www.modena5stelle.it

The full blog entry can be found at the link below.