{"id":3427,"date":"2013-03-04T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T12:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/?p=3427"},"modified":"2013-03-04T13:45:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T12:45:14","slug":"da-conservare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/?p=3427","title":{"rendered":"Da conservare."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"La<\/a>

La copertina del New York Times del 4 marzo 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

Ed ecco l’articolo.<\/p>\n

ROME \u2014 A populist with wild hair, a booming voice and untucked shirts, Beppe Grillo now holds the fate of Italy \u2014 and to\u00a0some extent Europe \u2014 in his hands.<\/p>\n

After winning a quarter of the votes in last week\u2019s national election, Mr. Grillo, a comedian turned activist, is being\u00a0courted by Italy\u2019s traditional political players, but having thumbed his nose at them for years, he is having none of it. He has ruled out such alliances, throwing Italian politics into a logjam.<\/p>\n

He refers to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who sought a return to power, as \u201cthe psycho dwarf\u201d and has steadfastly rejected appeals by Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the center-left Democratic Party, to join forces to govern, dismissing him as \u201ca dead man walking.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a rare interview at his seaside home in Marina di Bibbona on Sunday, Mr. Grillo said it would be \u201cinadmissible\u201d for him to ensure the stability of a future Italian government. \u201cIt would be like Napoleon making a deal with Wellington.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barefoot and wearing faded jeans and a gray T-shirt with an image of Gandhi, he said his goal was to do away with a system that had \u201cdisintegrated the country\u201d and build \u201csomething new\u201d that would restore Italy to a true participatory democracy. \u201cWe can change everything in the hands of respectable people, but the existing political class must be expelled immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grillo typifies a new style of politician rising from the fires of the European Union\u2019s long-running economic crisis and voter discontent in other countries. Like Alexis Tsipras, the young upstart in Greece who rode an anti-austerity wave to head the second-largest parliamentary party, or Yair Lapid, who tapped into a national frustration with social\u00a0inequality in Israel, these politicians are not extremists but generally reformist leftists.<\/p>\n

In refusing to play ball with the establishment powers, whom they consider irredeemably corrupt, the newcomers are fraying nerves in Brussels and Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the sense that the European project is at risk with what happens in Italy if Grillo blames the E.U. for problems along with Germany, the enforcer,\u201d said Mois\u00e9s Na\u00edm, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. \u201cIf he gets away with that, other politicians will also do it, and there may be contagion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that his political crusade, called the Five Star Movement, has been handed a powerful mandate, Mr. Grillo\u2019s challenge will be to decide how to use it to change an establishment that has long viewed him as a demagogic, even reckless, man who risks taking Italy down the path of Greece.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grillo rejected those charges in the interview, in which his at-home persona bore little resemblance to the inflammatory populist whipping up crowds into an indignant rage. \u201cHow can we be accused of destroying something that\u2019s already destroyed?\u201d he said, speaking in measured tones. \u201cThey\u2019ve devoured the country, and now they can\u2019t govern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, he has gathered huge followings after being barred from Italian television in the 1980s for mocking corrupt politicians. With a background in accounting, he has also taken on scandal-ridden businesses that have cost shareholders and taxpayers spectacular amounts through mismanagement, including the Parmalat dairy empire, Telecom Italia and the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.<\/p>\n

His biggest edge, however, has been exploiting the power of the Internet and social media to get his message out. When he started a political blog in 2005, people logged in by the millions to engage in debate.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by the momentum, he formed his Five Star Movement a little more than three years ago, based on a manifesto of improving public water, transportation, development, Internet connection and availability, and the environment.<\/p>\n

Soon, Five Star candidates, known in the press as Grillini, began making a mark in local elections, grabbing seats in the legislatures of the Sicily region and in the city of Parma by addressing issues that embedded politicians rarely took on.<\/p>\n

Candidates \u2014 mostly eager professionals younger than 45 \u2014 post videos and profiles of themselves on Mr. Grillo\u2019s blog and are then chosen through an online vote. Ethics standards are strict: No criminal record or previous political affiliations are permitted. Doing without official cars and other perks of office is a must. Lawmakers must quit after two terms and may keep only a small percentage of the monthly salary that Italian elected representatives typically earn. The rest will most likely be put into a fund for small and medium businesses planning to expand and create jobs.<\/p>\n

Before the national vote, the most striking success had come in Sicily, where the party won 15 of 90 seats in the regional assembly in October. It has since scored some legislative victories on critical issues in the party\u2019s platform, largely by backing proposals sought by the movement\u2019s members, regardless of which party makes them, said Francesco Cappello, the party\u2019s deputy leader there.
\nRecently, for instance, lawmakers approved a plan by the Democratic Party to halt a costly public works contract for a\u00a0bridge over the Strait of Messina, which divides Sicily from the mainland. Mr. Grillo, in a wet suit, swam it in October in\u00a0one hour, a stunt he said had shown why the bridge was hardly needed.<\/p>\n

Such tactics may be effective at shifting legislative agendas at a regional level. But maneuvering in the political shark tank of Rome will require a different approach.<\/p>\n

The party \u201chas the problems of a movement that grew quickly,\u201d said Roberto Biorcio, a sociology professor at Bicocca University in Milan and an author of a recent book about the Five Star Movement. \u201cSo there will be some issues of inexperience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mirella Liuzzi, 27, an expert on social media, is one of the 180 Grillini who will enter the lower house in Rome soon. She said she was looking forward to standing in Parliament, but acknowledged that it would be \u201ca tough mandate.\u201d Already, the\u00a0movement\u2019s voters are begging her not to disappoint them, she said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, all of the newly elected Grillini kicked off several days of meetings in Rome to learn about lawmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it isn\u2019t a political party, it will have to do the sorts of things that a political party normally does,\u201d Mr. Biorcio said.<\/p>\n

In the interview, Mr. Grillo said the movement would try to develop a consensus platform through discussion and set out legislative goals by May. Among the top measures is a so-called citizenship salary, a type of unemployment insurance for hard-hit Italians. Policies would be funded by cutting waste, corruption and rampant political spending. Further savings would come from withdrawing Italian forces from Afghanistan, capping state pensions at 5,000 euros a month and overturning tax amnesties, among other steps.<\/p>\n

The big question is still whether Five Star lawmakers will simply be reactive and prone to blocking legislation they deem unfavorable. After Mr. Grillo refused to ally the movement with other parties, his detractors pointed out that most of his talk involves pulling down rather than building up.<\/p>\n

His stance has rekindled fears that Italy may pivot back toward the center of the euro crisis, which Mr. Grillo blames for worsening the lives of ordinary Italians. He has called for a nationwide referendum on whether Italy should remain in the euro zone, and declared the spread between yields on Italy\u2019s and Germany\u2019s bonds a \u201challucination\u201d \u2014 a claim that rings hollow while thousands of small businesses are closing weekly as foreign investors drive up interest rates to reflect political uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The departing prime minister, Mario Monti, saved Italy \u2014 at least temporarily \u2014 from having to ask for an international bailout. The risk is that Mr. Grillo has the effect of reversing those gains, making the situation harder for the people he is fighting for.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grillo brushed off those concerns. Markets would respond positively, he said, \u201cif we work with transparency and serenely, if we are honest and abolish conflict of interest, and pass laws against criminality, and if we support small and medium businesses and transform Italy into a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Sicily, Rosario Crocetta, the region\u2019s center-left president, said he was skeptical about Mr. Grillo\u2019s ability to guide the movement\u2019s legislators in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come for Grillo to decide whether he is the pied piper of a protest movement that is an end to itself, or take on the institutional responsibilities for which he asked citizens for a mandate,\u201d Mr. Crocetta said. \u201cHe has to show voters whether he was elected to help the country, or to lead it into chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed ecco l’articolo. ROME \u2014 A populist with wild hair, a booming voice and untucked shirts, Beppe Grillo now holds the fate of Italy \u2014 and to\u00a0some extent Europe \u2014 in his hands. After winning a quarter of the votes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stefanome.it\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}