Beppe
Grillo, leader of the populist Five Star Movement in Italy, prides himself on
his ridicule of the parliamentary system. Yet while his anti-establishment
rhetoric sounds appealing, at heart it's actually anti-democratic. And very
similar to that of an infamous Italian from the past.
The man whom German center-left leader Peer Steinbrück called a
"clown" does have entertainment value, that much we can agree on. Italy and
the euro? "De facto, Italy is already out of the euro zone." Rome and
the parliamentary system? "I give all the parties six more months, then
it's over here." And these quotes are only the highlights from a recent
interview with Beppe Grillo published by the German business daily Handeslblatt.
When it comes to straight talking, even Steinbrück, reknowned for his lack of a
filter, is surpassed by Grillo.
Steinbrück got a fair amount
of flack for his clown comparison. If he had used the term to describe only
Berlusconi, everyone would have simply nodded in agreement. But Grillo? The leader of the streets and hero of the youth, whose third-placed Five Star Movement demonstrated the degree
to which Merkel's austerity diktat is pushing Italy to its limits? The advocate
for shorter terms of office and a cleaner way of doing politics? Even within
the ranks of Steinbrück's Social Democrats (SPD), people were calling for their
candidate to be put in his place.
A part of the sympathy that
Grillo enjoys in Germany is undoubtedly thanks to his proximity to the
political left. Much of what the Five Star Movement espouses could easily be
found in the platforms of the Attac movement or Germany's Green party: the
passion for alternative sources of energy, the promise of more civic
engagement, the protest against the "fat cats" of international
finance and the calls to put them on a diet. But that's just the surface. Such
fluff doesn't propel a party to the top in just a few short years, neither in
Italy nor anywhere else.
Grillo derives his energy from
resentment. The real key to his success lies in the exploitation of anger -- at
Germany, at Brussels bureaucrats, at the whole system. That is what makes him
great, not the appeal to reason or the love of democracy.
As with all other
revolutionaries, Grillo's answer to the malaise of the present age is extremely
simple. You just have to do away with the politicians or, better yet, jettison
everything that smells of power and privilege. "We are young," it says
on his blog. "We have no structure, heirarchy, leaders or secretaries. We
take orders from no one." Grillo's comparison of his movement to the
French Revolution, which took its ideas of equality with bloody seriousness, is
no accident. He relativizes by saying, "without the guillotine," but
the stipulation means little. When people are incited into rage, those who
fueled their passions never take the blame.
Good
Politics Relies on Compromise
It's the puritanism of the
radical moralist that distinguishes Grillo from his competitors and attracts
the masses. "Every corner will be illuminated, every committee, every
conference hall, every floor," one Five Star member decreed after the
elections. The movement wants to "thoroughly clean up the state
apparatus," read another explanation as to why so many people voted for
the comedian.
In the real world, politics is
an arduous, rather unappetizing business. It depends on compromise that, by
definition, not everyone is happy with. Sometimes you have to ask the people to
accept things they don't understand or want. The Social Democrats in Germany
are a case in point. Ten years ago, the SPD passed a controversial package of
job-market and welfare reforms. They strengthened the country, but hurt the
party. The idea that the votes of the street are somehow more democratic than
the votes of representatives sent to parliament in a democratic election is an
illusion that has found adherents in Germany as well.
In his best moments, Grillo
talks like a cult leader. When he speaks of being "not a commander, but a
guarantor," he sounds like a swami who could just as easily be leading the
penitant to an ashram. But with a bit of historical awareness, one can see
darker parallels.
Echoes
of Italian Fascism
In the Swiss magazine Weltwoche,
British journalist Nicholas Farrell draws a comparison between Grillo and
another famous Italian who founded his own populist movement nearly a hundred
years ago: Benito Mussolini. Farrell is an expert on the fascist dictator,
having written a much cited 2003 biography of Il Duce.
Mussolini also claimed that
his fascist group "Fasci di Combattimento" was not a party but a
movement, because political parties were the problem, not the solution. He too
saw himself and his followers as cleansers who would finally clean up the frail
and corrupt system. And he likewise claimed to represent the youth and
freethinkers, those who no longer believed in programs and statutes but in
rejuvinating action.
Farrell even finds
similarities in the two men's choice of words. Whereas Mussolini spoke of
parliament as a "deaf, gray hall" that he refused to enter, Grillo
describes his refusal to cooperate in a similar style: "The old parties
are coming to an end. They should give back what they stole, and leave. Either
they follow us, or they are doomed." The mockery of the parliamentary
system under the guise of true democracy is a trick that all opponents of
democracy espouse, regardless of where they come from.
It is easily overlooked
nowadays, but fascism at its heart was a leftist movement. Mussolini never made
a secret of his orgins: "I am and always will be a socialist. My
convictions will never change. They are implanted into my bones," he told
his comrades as they expelled him from the party at the outbreak of war in 1914
because of his pro-war stance. Farrell concludes that "Mussolini's fascism
was black, Grillo's is green, but they both have a red heart."
One can only hope that
Steinbrück was right when he said Italians had elected two clowns.
Unfortunately it looks as if he was very wrong about one of them.
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