Beppe Grillo

Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (Italian: [ˈbɛppe ˈɡrillo]; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor, blogger, and politician.

Beppe Grillo
Leader of the Five Star Movement
In office
4 October 2009 – 23 September 2017
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byLuigi Di Maio
Personal details
Born
Giuseppe Piero Grillo

(1948-07-21) 21 July 1948
Genoa, Italy
Political partyFive Star Movement
Spouse(s)
Parvin Tadjik
​
(m. 1996)​
Children6
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with Gianroberto Casaleggio) of the Italian Five Star Movement political party. Grillo became one of the most prominent examples of the populist surge which arose in Europe during the 2010s.[1]

Early life and career

Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria, on 21 July 1948.[2] He studied as an accountant but did not finish university.[3] After high school, he became a comedian by chance, improvising a monologue in an audition. Two weeks later, he was discovered by Italian television presenter Pippo Baudo. Grillo participated in the variety show Secondo Voi from 1977 to 1978. In 1979, he participated in Luna Park by Enzo Trapani, and in the variety show Fantastico.[4][5]

In the 1980s he appeared in the shows Te la do io l'America (1982, four episodes) and Te lo do io il Brasile (1984, six episodes), in which he narrated his experiences of visits to the United States and Brazil. This led to his appearance as the protagonist of another show, developed especially for him, called Grillometro (Grillometer). In 1986, he appeared in a series[6] of prize-winning advertisements for a brand of yoghurt.

Beppe Grillo (on the right) with Pippo Baudo during the 1980s

Soon afterwards, his performances began to include political satire that offended some Italian politicians. In 1986 during the Saturday night television show Fantastico 7, he attacked the Italian Socialist Party and its leader Bettino Craxi, then Italy's Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC).[7][8] As a consequence, Grillo was effectively banished from publicly owned television.[9]

Exile from television
Grillo alongside with Anna Oxa and Stefania Casini in 1978

Since the early 1990s Grillo's appearances on television became rare; according to Mark Franchetti, politicians were offended by his jokes.[10] When one of his shows was allowed to be broadcast live by RAI in 1993, it obtained a record share of 15 million viewers.[11] Grillo often accuses the public broadcaster RAI of "public financing for the parties" that abuse it for their own propagandist needs.[12]

Grillo also took aim at the Italian Socialist Party, which directly led to him having less television appearance after the mid 1980s.[13] Grillo also criticized Biagio Agnes, then the director of the STET, for dishonest business practices.[14] By the early 1990s, Grillo was known for his anti-establishment comedy as well as the denunciation of public policies.[14] While it did give him attention and the beginning of his political base, it also directly led him to the lack of television appearances.

Despite this exile, excerpts from Grillo's Five Star Movement political rallies are often broadcast on television, especially on political debate talk shows. On 19 May 2014, Grillo returned to Italian public television, RAI to participate in the popular late-night political debate talk show Porta a Porta as part of his campaign for the 2014 European Parliament election. The program attracted three million viewers.[15] As of August 2015, Grillo performs on stage in Italy and abroad.[16] His themes include energy use, political and corporate corruption, finance, freedom of speech, child labour, globalization and technology.[17]

Blog and web enthusiasm

Looking for another outlet, Grillo eventually turned to the internet. This started when Grillo met a manager of a small internet firm named Gianroberto Casaleggio.[18] He expanded his influence to a larger audience with his website beppegrillo.it once the site was launched in January 2005.[19] The internet was seen as an alternative source for media which ran contrary to the mainstream media. Hence, Grillo was able to gain many followers who became disillusioned with mainstream Italian media.[20] Over time, it also became seen as the "headquarters" of the Five Star Movement and the main hub of its activity, rather than a physical location. A year after its launch, it became recognized by Time magazine as one of the most influential websites to date.[19] Despite the website's success, there have been a number of other websites used to ramp up support for Grillo. One such site by the name of meetup.com was used to organize rallies and campaigns[21] making Grillo's progress even more apparent. The website was also used to discuss the political stances of Grillo as well as any other politically affiliated topic referring to Grillo.

Grillo maintains a blog in Italian, English, and Japanese that is updated daily. According to Technorati, the blog ranks among the 10 most visited in the world. In 2008, The Guardian included Grillo's blog among the world's most influential.[22] He often receives letters from prominent figures such as Antonio Di Pietro (former Italian Minister of Infrastructures), Fausto Bertinotti (former President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies), Renzo Piano, and Nobel Prize Winners including Dario Fo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Dalai Lama and Muhammad Yunus.[23] As Grillo became more and more involved in Italian politics, the use of his blog to convey a political message was accompanied by a strong emphasis on the role of the Web as the harbinger of new possibilities for direct democracy and for a fairer society, making Grillo one of the leading popularisers of digital utopianism in Italy.[13] As of mid December 2017, the English and Japanese versions of the blog seem permanently defunct. The last entry in the English section is from November 2015, and in Japanese from October 2011. The Italian version, however, continues to be updated daily.

Political career

Activism
Beppe Grillo in Bologna speaking at V-Day.

On 1 September 2005, Grillo used money donated by readers of his blog to buy a full-page advertisement in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, in which he called for the resignation of the Bank of Italy's then governor Antonio Fazio over the Antonveneta banking scandal. In October 2005, Time chose him as one of the "European Heroes 2005" for targeting corruption and financial scandals.[24]

On 22 November 2005, Grillo bought a page in the International Herald Tribune, saying that members of the Italian Parliament ought not to represent citizens if they have been convicted of a crime, even in the first degree of the three available in the Italian system.[25] He maintains a regularly updated list of members of the Italian Parliament who have been convicted in all three degrees on his blog.[26] On 26 July 2007, Grillo was permitted to speak to the members of the European Parliament in Brussels, where he drew attention to the state of Italian politics.[27]

V movement

Grillo has led several national and international political campaigns. On 8 September 2007, he organized a "V‑Day Celebration" in Italy; the "V" stood for vaffanculo ("fuck off"). During the rally, he projected the names of 24 Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes including corruption, tax evasion and abetting a murder. More than 2 million Italians participated in this rally.[28] He also used the rally to urge Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a "Bill of Popular Initiative" to remove from office Italian parliamentarians with criminal convictions.[29]

According to Internet scholars Alberto Pepe and Corinna Di Gennaro, V‑day was the first political demonstration in Italy developed and promoted via the blogosphere and the social networking services.[30] The second V-Day took place on 25 April 2008, in Turin, San Carlo Square, dedicated to the Italian press and the financial support it receives from the government. Grillo strongly criticized the Italian press for the lack of freedom, Umberto Veronesi for his support for incinerators, NATO bases in Italy, politicians (Silvio Berlusconi had recently been re-elected), and the television channel Retequattro for retaining frequencies assigned to Europa 7..

In August 2008, Grillo was the subject of a report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's international affairs program Foreign Correspondent. Entitled "The Clown Prince", the report profiled Grillo's life, political activism, the V‑Day campaign and use of the internet as a political tool.[31]

Five Star Movement
Main article: Five Star Movement
Beppe Grillo in Rome during the tour 2014.

In 2010, he started a political movement, Movimento 5 Stelle, the "Five Star Movement" to promote through the Internet his ideals about honesty and direct democracy. The movement became a party with electoral prospects during the 2010 regional elections, with four regional councillors being elected. The party made further gains at the 2012 local elections, receiving the third highest number of votes overall and winning the mayoral election for Parma.[32]

At the 2013 general election the M5S won 25.5% of votes, the second most popular one for the Chamber of Deputies,[33] but obtained just 109 deputies out of 630 due to an electoral system which favoured parties running in coalition.[34] In the European Parliament the M5S is part of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group.

In 2014, Grillo announced that he was aiming to get four million signatures to support his attempts to get a referendum on Italy's membership of the Eurozone.[35] He collected around 200,000 signatures while the minimum is 500,000 but he announced that his project was going on despite the failure.

In June 2018, Grillo published a post on his blog in which he called for selecting the members of the Italian Senate through sortition, and possibly eventually replacing elections with sortition altogether.[36][37]

On 7 December 1981 Beppe Grillo lost control of a Chevrolet K5 Blazer as he drove on a military road, forbidden to civilians, from Limone Piemonte to Colle di Tenda. Six kilometers after "Quota 1400" near the border with France the vehicle slipped on a sheet of ice and fell 80 meters into a deep ravine. In the car with Grillo were four of his Genoese friends, with whom he was spending the weekend of Immaculate Conception. Grillo saved himself out of the passenger compartment before the car dropped into the void and in state of shock he managed to call for help. Three of his friends in the car lost their lives: Renzo Giberti and Rossana Quartapelle, respectively 45 and 33, and their 9-year-old son Francesco. On 14 March 1985 Grillo was found guilty of manslaughter.[38]

In 2003, he settled a libel suit for defamation filed against him by Rita Levi-Montalcini. During a show, Beppe Grillo called the 94-year-old winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and Italian Senator for Life (2001–2012) an "old whore".[39]

When Italian judges were investigating the Parmalat scandal, which was then the world's largest corporate bankruptcy scandal, Grillo was called to testify because he had anticipated the imminent collapse of the dairy conglomerate in one of his shows. When the judges asked how he had been able to discover that, he said that Parmalat's financial holes were so evident that anybody who had enough ability to see them would see them, since the corporate accounting was easily accessible.[40]

In 2012 Grillo was convicted of having defamed Fininvest in an article published in 2004 in the Italian magazine Internazionale . The compensation, equal to 50,000 euros, in addition to the costs of the proceedings, was established by the judges of the first section of the court of appeal of the court of Rome.[41][42][43][44][45]

On September 2013 he was sentenced for defaming the former mayor of Asti and parliamentary for Forza Italia, Giorgio Galvagno. In 2003, Grillo had called Galvagno "a briber" during a performance at the Teatro Alfieri in Asti. Grillo had to pay Galvagno 25,000 euros and interest from 2003 as compensation for damages, plus compensation for legal costs.[46][47]

On 12 December 2013 the Tribunal of Genoa sentenced Grillo in the first instance for defamation against Antonio Misiani, treasurer of the Democratic Party. In May 2012, Grillo published on the front page of his blog a mosaic of pictures with photographs of the PdL (Rocco Crimi), PD (Antonio Misiani) and UDC (Giuseppe Naro) administrators, along with those of former Lega Nord (Francesco Belsito) and The Daisy (Luigi Lusi). The judge has provisionally recognized a compensation for Misiani and a compensation for the Democratic Party of 5000 euros.[48]

On 14 September 2015 he was convicted by the tribunal of Ascoli Piceno for aggravated defamation against Franco Battaglia, professor at the University of Modena, to a term of imprisonment with suspended sentence, €1,250 fine and a provisional fee of €50,000 to the offender. In that occasion Grillo compared himself to Nelson Mandela and Sandro Pertini.[49][50]

On 31 March 2017 Grillo was formally investigated along with Alessandro Di Battista for defamation following a police report filed by Marika Cassimatis, former candidate mayor of the M5S in Genoa.[51]

On 11 July 2017 Grillo was convicted at the third and higher judgement level by the tribunal of Ancona to a payment of 6,000 euros, a provisional amount of 50,000 euros and payment of legal fees, raised to 12,000 euros for defamation against Professor Franco Battaglia.[52]

Over the years, Grillo has accumulated a number of fines and/or convictions for building abuse and other crimes, such as attempted instigation to disobedience by inviting police officers to stop protecting politicians.[53]

Criticism
Beppe Grillo during a show in 2018

Grillo is often criticized for his lifestyle. In particular, critics blame him for owning a motor yacht and a Ferrari sports car, in contradiction with his environmentalist stance. In his blog he said he acquired both but has since sold them.[38] He defended himself from similar attacks from the leader of the Democratic Party on this subject, saying he earned his pay over the years and paid his taxes on them.[54]

Grillo was also criticized for having taken advantage of the Condono Tombale, a fiscal amnesty granted by the first Berlusconi government in 2001, which Grillo had publicly opposed.[55] Grillo said during the V‑Day demonstration that he had personally benefited by only €500.

Grillo has proposed that members of the Italian Parliament who have a criminal record should be banned from public office. Because Grillo was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter caused by a car accident,[38] he cannot run for public office as a member of his own party, which prohibits those who have a criminal record from being candidates. He says he is not interested in becoming a member of the Italian Parliament.[38] Despite this, in July 2009 he announced his intention to present himself as a candidate for the PD's primary elections,[56] which does not imply automatic presence in the Italian parliament. He also proposed that MPs should be limited to two government terms of office, after which they may not stand again.

Grillo is also criticized as being a demagogue who attacks politicians on superficial issues and their private lives, while being unable to provide a valid alternative. For example, stand-up comedian Daniele Luttazzi criticized him in 2007 in an open letter published on the website of the news magazine MicroMega. Luttazzi accused Grillo of being a "demagogue" and a "populist", suggesting Grillo should choose between satire and politics.[57]

In March 2013 a commentary piece in Der Spiegel called Grillo "The most dangerous man in Europe", described his rhetoric as anti-democratic, said he derived his energy from resentment, and cited the British writer Nicholas Farrell who has drawn parallels between Grillo and Benito Mussolini.[58]

Filmography

Grillo has appeared in three movies:

In 2008, Grillo was featured in the documentary The Beppe Grillo Story, produced by Banyak Films for Al Jazeera English.[59] He also appeared in archive footage in the 2017 movie Call Me by Your Name.[60]

Public shows
  • Buone Notizie ("Good News", 1991)
  • Energia e Informazione ("Energy and Information", 1995)
  • Cervello ("Brain", 1997)
  • Apocalisse morbida ("Soft Apocalypse", 1998)
  • Time Out (2000)
  • La grande trasformazione ("The Great Transformation", 2001)
  • Va tutto bene ("It's All Right", 2002–2003)
  • Black out – Facciamo luce (2003–2004)
  • BeppeGrillo.it (2004–2005)
  • Incantesimi ("Enchantments", 2006)
  • Reset (2007)
  • V-Day (2007)
  • V2-Day (2008)
  • Delirio ("Madness", 2008)
  • Monnezza-Day ("Trash Day", 2009)
  • Movimento a cinque stelle ("5-Star Movement", 2009)
  • Un Grillo mannaro a Londra ("A Werewolf Grillo in London", 2010)
  • Woodstock 5 Stelle ("5-Star Woodstock", 2010)
  • Beppe Grillo is back (2010)
  • Te la do io l'Europa ("I'll Give You Europe", 2014)
  • GrilloVSGrillo (2016)

See also

References
  1. Beppe Grillo: populist who could throw Italy into turmoil at general election, The Guardian
  2. "Programma elettorale del MoVimento 5 Stelle per le elezioni politiche che si svolgeranno in data 24 febbraio e 25 febbraio 2013 per l'elezione della Camera dei Deputati e del Senato della Repubblica" (PDF). interno.gov.it. Ministry of Interior. 9 January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  3. Dinmore, Guy (1 March 2013). "Beppe Grillo, the man out to sack Rome". Financial Times. London: Pearson PLC. Archived from the original on 4 March 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  4. "Beppe Grillo - Luna Park, 1979". YouTube. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  5. "Beppe Grillo a "Fantastico" (1979)". YouTube. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  6. "Beppe Grillo - Serie di spot Yomo (1987-89)". YouTube. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  7. Gian Marco Alari (28 December 2014). "Grillo e la battuta su Craxi che lo fece cacciare dalla Rai". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original on 21 August 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  8. Martino Abbracciavento (14 August 2015). "Beppe Grillo e quelle profezie catastrofiche mai avveratesi". Termometropolitico (in Italian). Archived from the original on 8 January 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  9. "Seriously Funny". Time. 2 October 2005. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  10. Mark Franchetti, The Berlusconi Show, BBC documentary first aired 17 March 2010. Franchetti states: "it is telling that he [Grillo] has not been allowed back on the networks, dominated by Berlusconi and his allies."
  11. "Grillo pronto ad andare da Vespa: "Gli porto un plastico, se non l'accetta mi offendo"". La Repubblica. 19 May 2014.
  12. "The RAI is public financing for the parties". Beppe Grillo. June 2013. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  13. Natale, Simone; Ballatore, Andrea (1 January 2014). "The web will kill them all: new media, digital utopia, and political struggle in the Italian 5-Star Movement" (PDF). Media, Culture & Society. 36 (1): 105–121. doi:10.1177/0163443713511902. ISSN 0163-4437. S2CID 73517559.
  14. Bonetti, Beppe. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 1. Oxford University Press. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00022553.
  15. "Oltre 3 milioni in Tv per Grillo-Vespa". La Stampa. 20 May 2014.
  16. "Grillo, l'eroe scelto da Time che batte tutti i record". Repubblica. 16 February 2006.
  17. "D'Alia's "Shit Wall" against the Internet". Beppe Grillo. 12 February 2009. Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  18. Manera, Manfred (25 May 2018). "Who's laughing now?". Newsweek Global. 170.
  19. Tiso, Giovanni (Winter 2013). "The Net will save us". Overland. 211: 55–60.
  20. Ceccarini, Luigi; Bordignon, Fabio (3 May 2016). "The five stars continue to shine: the consolidation of Grillo's 'movement party' in Italy". Contemporary Italian Politics. 8 (2): 131–159. doi:10.1080/23248823.2016.1202667. ISSN 2324-8823. S2CID 148362265.
  21. Bartlett, Jamie (16 March 2018). "The new age of digital populism Five Star's "just fix it!" politics". New Statesman. 147: 15–16.
  22. "The World's 50 Most Powerful Blogs". The Guardian. 16 March 2008.
  23. "Un Nobel per Milano". Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  24. Jeff Israely, "Seriously Funny" (article on Beppo Grillo), TIME Magazine, 2 October 2005.
  25. "Beppe Grillo's Blog" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  26. "Clean Parliament" Archived 16 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, list of convicted felons in the Italian parliament.
  27. Video clip on YouTube
  28. "Beppe's Inferno: A comedian's war on crooked politics". The New Yorker. 4 February 2008.
  29. "Clean Up Parliament!" Archived 6 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Beppe Grillo's Blog.
  30. Alberto Pepe and Corinna Di Gennaro. "Political protest Italian–style: The blogosphere and mainstream media in the promotion and coverage of Beppe Grillo’s V–day". First Monday. Vol. 14, Number 12, 7 December 2009.
  31. "The Clown Prince". ABC News. 8 May 2008.
  32. "Ballottaggio Parma 2012, svolta epocale: il candidato del Movimento 5 stelle è sindaco (video) - Il Fatto Quotidiano". 21 May 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  33. "Risultato elezioni 2013: con i voti degli italiani all'estero il Pd è il primo partito alla Camera". huffingtonpost.it. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  34. "Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali". elezionistorico.interno.it. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  35. "Italy's Beppe Grillo calls for referendum on leaving euro".
  36. "Beppe Grillo, l'ultimo delirio sui parlamentari: "Scegliamoli con il sorteggio"". Libero Quotidiano. 28 June 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  37. Grillo, Beppe (27 June 2018). "Il più grande inganno della Politica: farci credere che servano i politici". Il Blog Di Beppe Grillo. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  38. .
  39. Gian Marco Chiocci. "Tra "vaffa" e condanne, Camere tabù per Grillo" (in Italian). Il Giornale. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  40. Grillo testifies on Parmalat crack: "I brought also Fiat and Telecom [Italia]", from La Repubblica, January 16, 2004
  41. "Grillo condannato per diffamazione risarcimento di 50 mila euro a Fininvest". la Repubblica. Milano. 22 March 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  42. Raffaello Binelli (22 March 2012). "Il Giornaleː Altro che satira... Grillo condannato per diffamazione 50mila euro a Fininvest". Il Giornale. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  43. Lucio Di Marzo (4 January 2013). "Il Giornaleː Diffamazione, Grillo pagherà 50mila euro a Berlusconi". Il Giornale. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  44. Emiliano Liuzzi (5 January 2013). "Berlusconi vince un processo: Grillo dovrà dargli 50 mila euro". Il Fatto Quotidiano. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  45. "Diffamazione, Grillo paga il Cavaliere". Lettera43. 4 January 2013. Archived from the original on 7 January 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  46. Lucio di Marzo (17 September 2013). "Grillo, condanna per diffamazione: 25mila euro all'ex sindaco di Asti". Il Giornale. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  47. "Condanna definitiva per Beppe Grillo: diffamò l'ex sindaco Giorgio Galvagno". La Nuova Provincia. Asti. 17 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  48. "Diffamò il tesoriere Pd. Beppe Grillo condannato". la Repubblica. Genova. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  49. "Grillo condannato per diffamazione di un professore dell'Università di Modena". Il Fatto Quotidiano. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  50. http://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/notizie/cronaca/2015/14-settembre-2015/diffamo-professore-universitario-grillo-condannato-tribunale-ascoli--2301920170671.shtml. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  51. "Cinque Stelle, indagati Grillo e Di Battista per diffamazione". 1 April 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  52. "La seconda condanna a Beppe Grillo per diffamazione di Franco Battaglia". 11 July 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  53. "Tutti i guai giudiziari di Beppe Grillo - Panorama". Panorama.it. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  54. Beppe Grillo – ROMA "Tsunami Tour 22 febbraio 2013" 2/4 on YouTube (22 February 2013). Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  55. "Grillo, the 'Great Moralist' seduced by the fiscal amnesty", from Il Giornale, 18 November 2005. Note that Il Giornale is owned by Silvio Berlusconi's brother, Paolo.
  56. "Pd, Grillo si candida alle primarie "Offro un'alternativa al nulla" - Politica - Repubblica.it".
  57. Daniele Luttazzi talks about Beppe Grillo on Micromega, from Il Corriere della Sera, 13 September 2007.
  58. Jan Fleischhauer, "Green Fascism: Beppe Grillo of Italy Is the Most Dangerous Man in Europe" – Spiegel Online (15 March 2013). Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  59. "The Beppe Grillo Story". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  60. Gallo, Francesco (14 February 2017). "Luca Guadagnino, la mia storia gay per famiglie" [Luca Guadagnino, my gay story for families]. ANSA (in Italian). Archived from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2020.

Official

Unofficial
Party political offices
New political party Leader of the Five Star Movement
2009–2017		 Succeeded by
Luigi Di Maio
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.