Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement has triumphed. But now comes the big debate
Last Monday, for the first time in my memory, nobody celebrated after a general election. No celebration from the Democrats, who were the projected winners but came out sore losers. Nor from the seven million voters (down from 13 million in 2008) who still chose Silvio Berlusconi and then became invisible – almost no one admits to having voted for the disgraced former prime minister.
There was not even any celebration from the real winners, the militants and voters of the Movimento 5 Stelle (Five Stars? How did Italy end up with a populist party whose name sounds like a luxury hotel chain?). Without securing a parliamentary majority, it is now the leading party in the Camera dei Deputati, and the second in the senate.
But, contrary to national tradition, the movement's supporters did not meet in piazzas, they did not take to the streets honking their car horns, they did not gather outside the party's headquarters opening bottles of sparkling wine. Beppe Grillo's movement voters are recession-stricken and don't find a great deal to celebrate. Also, nobody knows, or much cares, where the party headquarters are actually based.
Out of a sort of desperation, a few militants and many more reporters stood outside the former comedian's villa on the outskirts of Genoa, while at the Bar del Fico, in central Rome, about 100 Grillini ate pizza and drank house wine. In truth, many supporters, as well as shell-shocked citizens, remained online, posting comments on Grillo's blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
In short, the quasi-winners did not seem too enthusiastic or hopeful; the losers were puzzled; and the path to a new government remains an enigma. Many Grillo voters already disagree with him and want him to support a minority cabinet with a short-term reform agenda led by a leader from the Democrats. Many former Grillo-haters show sudden admiration for his stamina and his success. However, our economy is not getting any better; but, along with a post-election Grillo hangover, we are at least now having an interesting – if scary – national conversation. No, we're not Greece. We're much bigger, and weirder.
In Rome, we are without a prime minister (and pope); and with a president (the very worried Giorgio Napolitano) and a mayor (the much-criticized Gianni Alemanno) in the last weeks of their mandate. There are scarce hopes of political stability in the near future. Everybody saw the Grillo tsunami coming; everybody knew about people of all sorts – mostly impoverished, out of work, underemployed; but also over-educated, experienced and close to the ruling class – who were coming out in support for him. But many kept believing in the pollsters who erroneously predicted a clear if narrow victory of the centre-left coalition.
Grillo has been attacked for his right-leaning outpourings about immigrants, women and trade unions. But among the 162 newly-elected 5 Stelle MPs there are 62 women; and the Grillini are, for the most part, young former left-wingers, environmentalists and local activists who had been ignored by the self-important and self-deceiving Democratic party leadership.
Democrats are traumatised, but it looks like they are once more failing to learn their lesson. They're openly fighting each other. Some support a suicidal coalition with Berlusconi's Popolo delle Libertà. Some are desperately trying to start a dialogue with the 5 Stelle, which means exclusively with Grillo and his advisor-consultant-guru Gianroberto Casaleggio, who keeps humiliating them. Some want President Napolitano to appoint Grillo as prime minister. And some keep commuting around Rome in chauffeur-driven luxury cars, fuelling the resentment against the Casta, the often corrupt and always overpaid political caste. The other caste – CEOs, industrialists, wealthy professionals, and pundits who abhorred Grillo until the end of last week, are now praising him. He has been declared "a Shakespearean fool, the only one who can say what others can't" and "an antidote to the proliferation of neo-Nazi movements which took hold of Hungary and Greece". Leonardo Del Vecchio, the founder of Luxottica, a global eyewear company, even backed a Grillo cabinet: "I don't think he's more stupid than the prime ministers we had in the past." Some endorsement!
As the novelist and playwright Ennio Flaiano used to say: "Italians tend to rush to help the winner." Some have decided to bet on him after suffering several other political delusions. Others have just decided to go with the pro-Grillo flow. Others are perplexed when they hear the new Grillini MPs telling reporters that they have no idea how the president is elected and they don't know where the senate is located. Nobody can predict how long all this will last, and what will happen next. Some real Grillo voters appear even less convinced than Del Vecchio. More than 100,000 of them signed an online petition launched by Viola Tesi, a PhD student, waitress and 5 Stelle supporter from Florence, to ask Grillo to negotiate with the Democrats. And many more agree. Others, the holier-than-thou Grillini, insist on fighting online, abusing dissenters. Italian-speakers might enjoy Libernazione.it, a website that has an automatic generator of Grillini insults, mostly about banks, subservient media, freemasons and corrupt politicians.
The newly elected Grillini will be trained by a former MP who is under investigation – the picturesque Francesco Barbato. Grillo likes him and has called him "a warrior". Barbato's apprentices are expected to share apartments, give back most of their parliamentary salary, and follow the rules posted on Grillo's blog, apparently written by someone fond of 1984's Orwellian Newspeak: "The members of Parliament are obliged to conform to the Statute, which will be named the Non-Statute."
Alongside the Non-Statute, most Italians are expecting a Non-Government: a phase of turmoil that will end up, not with a revolution but – in a best-case scenario – with some resignations, a few reforms and new elections. The average Grillo voter is as pessimistic as any other depressed European. She generally says: "I'm not a big Grillo fan. I voted for him because I support some of his proposals, but mostly because I wanted to send home our bankrupt political class."
As I write, the only resignation has come from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. On Thursday, he took off from St Peter's Square in a helicopter, "flying over a crazy Rome", wrote Francesco Merlo on the daily newspaper La Repubblica. It will probably get even crazier soon, and somewhat less stylish.
Maria Laura Rodotà is a columnist with Corriere della Sera
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