A political blog capitalized discontent in Italy

In Italy a blog has managed to capitalize growing discontent of large sectors of society with their political class. Beppe Grillo, which is Italian for Jiminy Cricket (Pinocchio’s conscience), is a 59 Genovese comedian who, a couple weeks ago, organized a march in Bologna that brought together 50,000 people, and which got over 300,000 signatures in support of the “Vaffanculo” manifest.

Beppe Grillo is the most visited blog in Italy, with over 100,000 entries per day. It sponsors candidacies for municipal elections and proposes steps to purge the Parliament, such as limiting time in office to two terms, allowing open-list direct voting and forbidding anyone who has been convicted of a penal crime from holding a seat.

In Italy the debate is thickening upon the massive audience: there are people who accuse Beppe Grillo of having a powerful demagogic, conservative and anti-political agenda, and whose criticism is overflowing into the party system, the media and institutions.

The comedian is banned from Italian public television since 1986 because of a joke he told on the RAI against the president at that time, socialist Bettino Craxi.