Comic Beppe Grillo, his Eurosceptic message and the mobilising of the Italian public, online

Abstract

The power of the net and the persuasive force of the language used, have contributed to a massive power shift in Italy. In a country where patronage discredits mainstream politicians, a comic and his political movement have stopped the established figures laughing, by finding a new freedom of speech on-line. Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement (FSM) gave a voice to the previously disenfranchised. Through his website, young mothers and unemployed engineers were selected in on-line primaries - and now hold the balance of power in Italy’s centre-left coalition government. Yet Grillo, advocate of participatory democracy, has paradoxically shunned the country’s political journalists who seek responses - instead directing them to his website. Is that funny? Despite Britain’s apparent pervasive Euroscepticism, it is in traditionally Europhile Italy that it has gained a foothold. On-line, Grillo and his fellow grillini persuade Italians almost daily over Europe. Today it was a video posted with Grillo and UKIP leader, Nigel Farage. FSM want a referendum allowing Italians to withdraw from the Euro – part of its emancipatory online battle. The Grillini, have replaced the old powerbroker, the secessionist, right-wing and anti-EU Northern League, which kept Silvio Berlusconi and the right in power for several decades. This paper couples an analysis of the political communication achieved by Grillo on-line over Europe (comparing and contrasting with the Northern League); with a discourse historical analysis of the persuasive language used and the historical and political terrain informing Grillo’s populist response. The paper will address the issues of mobilising on the net; giving a voice to the disenfranchised (as perceived by Grillo); and creating a possible forum for freedom of speech, creating a very different and often more humorous Eurosceptic message than the ones thus far subjected to analysis, but one that now needs rigorous critical evaluation.