Publicity: 

When the body politic is sick, sometimes laughter is the best medicine.

That’s the approach taken by the controversial Italian comedian and agent provocateur, Beppe Grillo.

Foreign Correspondent presenter Mark Corcoran accompanies the man known as “the clown prince of Italian politics” as he works the crowd at massive rallies, lampooning the country’s traditional political class and calling for a new order in the country.

With Italians enduring the second lowest average wage in Western Europe, life for many is far from dolce.

After decades of corruption, mafia stranglehold and an ever revolving series of almost identical governments, Italians are weary of the old ways.

The charismatic Grillo styles himself as an anti-politician and hundreds of thousands of his country folk are heeding his call.

From his villa near Genoa, Grillo has launched a new movement known as V Day – with the V standing for “Vaffanculo”, meaning “fuck off” in Italian.

Grillo walking through old  streets of Turin towards rally venue

00:00

CORCORAN:  To Italians he’s simply known as Beppe. And when Beppe Grillo hits the streets, he’s greeted with the deference of a rock star.

00:11

But he’s a man on a lofty mission:  to demolish Italy’s political establishment.

00:22

Shunned by the mainstream media - this comedian takes his message directly to the people.

00:32

Grillo walks on stage

Today more than 60 thousand crowd into Turin’s city square to hear him deliver that message that’s unmistakably blunt.

00:43

GRILLO:  VAFFANCULO!

00:52

CORCORAN:  Beppe Grillo is the mastermind of the V Day movement – the V stands for Vaffanculo.

00:57

He’s tapped into a groundswell of anger. Ordinary Italians are sick of corruption, the mafia, and the revolving door of national Governments.

01:14

For five hours they stand captivated – as Grillo and his supporting cast accuse the media of complicity in supporting a failed political system.

01:28

GRILLO:  …but we don’t want …no, no…we want to reassure them,

01:38

because our weapons are not in the streets to go and smash shop windows. Our weapons have been to come out and ask for signatures! And our main weapon is to grab them by the arse!

01:43

CORCORAN:  Grillo claims more than a million Italians have signed his petitions demanding the right to vote directly for individuals rather than parties in elections – and this is what puts the V in V Day.

02:0

GRILLO:  You’d say fuck… fuck. Vaffanculo means an explosion of joy, of humour, a gulp of clean water. It means enough! Enough of the corrupt politics in parliament!

02:19

Grillo at home with Corcoran

Music

02:38

CORCORAN:  Beppe Grillo runs his campaign from his villa, near Genoa in northern Italy.

02:45

Grillo:  That is the future. The future’s coming.

Corcoran:  The future’s coming to get you!

Grillo:  Yes.

02:53

Grillo at home on computer

CORCORAN:  Comedy has brought him wealth, but his real power lies online.

03:01

Music

03:05

CORCORAN:  Italy’s political parties tightly control the mainstream media – but in cyberspace Beppe rules.

03:10

Time Magazine declared his blog to be one of the best in the world.  And Grillo claims his site gets up to 300 thousand hits a day.

03:18

Grillo

GRILLO:  So with the net… with this great form of communication, with the web, the internet, that didn’t exist before, you can make miracles. That’s what’s happening today in Italy.

03:28

V Day rally. Grillo on stage

CORCORAN:  The Beppe phenomenon hit political centre stage last year when 80 thousand gathered in Bologna, to watch him “out” 24 parliamentarians with criminal convictions.

03:43

According to Grillo, since the last election in April, the problem has only worsened. He says the major parties now have 70 convicted criminals in office.

03:57

Grillo

GRILLO:   So why do they choose a previous offender and send him to parliament? Why? Because they’re votes… mafia votes… votes in exchange. Votes and power. That’s why they get them elected. And they’ll do anything to get them elected.

04:12

Naples

Music

04:29

CORCORAN:  To understand Grillo’s mass appeal, you need to travel south to Naples. 18th century Romantics, enamoured by the city’s majesty, coined the phrase “See Naples and die”.

04:44

Naples garbage

Although these days, you’re more likely to expire from some nasty disease.

04:59

Music

05:04

CORCORAN:  For years, Naples has been unable or unwilling to get rid of thousands of tonnes of rubbish – the piles seemingly rise and fall on a political whim.

05:12

Music

05:23

CORCORAN:  The new Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has declared Naples’ waste problem a national security crisis that must be resolved.

05:32

Corcoran walks with Fico amongst garbage

Environmental activist Roberto Fico says the Government has thrown staggering amounts at the problem, but much of the money disappears into the pockets of corrupt officials and the local mafia – the Camorra.

05:42

Fico

FICO:  In 15 years they’ve collected more than 2 billion euros. This 2 billion is money belonging to the Italian people.

05:56

CORCORAN:  He says the garbage crisis is simply too profitable to go away.

06:02

FICO: Unfortunately we’ve got a system that’s anti-democratic and corrupt. And in all of Italy, Naples is the outstanding example of this.

06:07

Gars past garbage/ V Day Rally

CORCORAN:  Disillusioned by the political process, many are now turning towards Italy’s most famous comedian turned political activist.

06:17

Grillo on stage at rally

Music

06:24

CORCORAN:  Beppe Grillo has been ramming home his not so subtle message for decades.

06:35

File Footage. Grillo on TV.

In 1986 he appeared on State TV implying that then Prime Minister Bettino Craxi was a thief.

06:40

Super: 1986

Grillo performing:  And Craxi says “Why?” And he says “If they are all socialists, who do they steal from?”

06:50

CORCORAN:  The joke saw him blacklisted from TV. Grillo then took his show to the club circuit -- though he did get the last laugh when Craxi fled the country in the wake of a bribery scandal.

06:57

Grillo on stage at rally

Music

07:08

Grillo at home in office

CORCORAN:  But Grillo is more than a performer – he’s also a trained accountant.

07:13

In 2001, he exposed Parmalat, Italy’s dairy food conglomerate, in a massive financial scandal.

07:18

Grillo

GRILLO:  As an accountant… the accounts, the profits and losses were equal. They were losing everything they made. How do you keep going like that?

07:25

Blog shots

Music

07:38

CORCORAN:  Corruption investigators and journalists were left trailing in his wake. Grillo was finally called in to give evidence.

07:44

Grillo on stage at rally

A 14 billion Euro black hole was discovered in Parmalat’s accounts, and charges were laid against 55 executives.

07:53

Grillo

GRILLO:  But it took me two years of telling people about it. I said it in the buildings and on the street -- all it needed was one TV newscast. It wasn’t something hidden that only I knew. Everyone knew, it was just that I had the freedom to be able to say it, and the most of the Italian news media didn’t.

08:05

La Dolce Vita sequence in Rome

Music

08:21

CORCORAN:  Most Italians agree that the country’s complex political system is in need of urgent reform.  But Beppe Grillo’s revolution is all too easily countered by “La Dolce Vita” – the good life.

08:30

Music

08:43

CORCORAN:  It’s a culture where corners are cut and favours done – all helping fuel Italy’s illegal or black economy – now estimated to be worth a staggering 500 billion dollars a year.

08:48

Music

09:01

SEVERGNINI:  Italy is a very sexy country – is a very attractive country – life here is a constant happening.

09:06

Severgnini

It’s fun, people are pleasant and gentle. You eat well, you drink better, you are surrounded by beauty – it’s a narcotic country.

09:12

Berlusconi at TV studio

CORCORAN:  Beppe Severgnini says Italy gets the politicians it deserves. That too many of his countrymen want to emulate perma-tanned billionaire Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- his extravagant life style, beautiful attendants and easy charm. And that’s why Italians elected him for a third term.

SEVERGNINI:  Italians have short memories –

09:24

Severgnini. Super: Beppe Severgnini
Political Analyst

a little longer than goldfish – goldfish have  got 3 seconds – we got a little bit more. We seem to have – or my countrymen seem to have forgotten that Mr Berlusconi was Prime Minister between  2001 and 2006 and we had the slowest growing economy in Europe.

09:48

Berlusconi at TV studio

CORCORAN:  Not only was Berlusconi re-elected in April– but he returned to power with a sweeping Parliamentary majority. 

10:08

Grillo at home with Corcoran

This is not a reality that sits well with Beppe Grillo.

CORCORAN:  80% of Italians still turned out to vote in this  election

10:15

Grillo

despite V Day – how do you explain that 80% turn out?

GRILLO:  No. Your information is wrong!  Nearly fifteen million people out of fifty million didn’t vote, or put in spoiled or invalid voting papers.

10:23

Grillo playing piano

Music

10:39

CORCORAN:  The man behind the performance is just as complicated as Italian politics.

10:49

Grillo

GRILLO:  I’m 60, I’ve got six children… two relationships, a family, two families, children with two different women. My wife is Iranian.

10:57

Grillo playing piano

Music

11:09

Grillo with wife

CORCORAN:  Like many comedians – he’s driven by demons of the past.

11:15

Grillo at computer

In 1981 Grillo was convicted of manslaughter, after he crashed his car on a mountain road– killing his passengers – a family of three.

The tragedy transformed him and his comedy, which now possessed a new, harder, political edge.

11:23

Grillo

GRILLO:  I’ve lived a very intense life, like a man of sixty, I had that accident… I lost the family of my friends.  I’ve had… the things that can happen in a life, but they have been revealed straight away.

11:40

Exterior of Senate building/ Rome statues

Music

11:56

CORCORAN:  In Italian politics, all roads lead to Rome – where Italy’s 62nd government in just 63 years – is busy settling into the old ways.

12:12

Corcoran walks with Cantoni

A key powerbroker in the Berlusconi team is Senator Giampiero Cantoni.

CORCORAN:  But is it time for Italian politics to change?

CANTONI:  Yes, it is time absolutely.

CORCORAN:    For the process to change, the structures to change?

CANTONI:  Yes, to reduce the influence of the caste politica.

12:28

CORCORAN:  But as a member of that political caste, Senator Cantoni has no intention of going anywhere. This 69 year old industrialist and former professor is a lifelong friend of the new PM. 

12:45

Cantoni

CANTONI:  I’ve known Berlusconi for more than 40 years, because we’re both from Milan, and we were friends at university when we were young. I believe he’s a genius. He’s not a normal man.

12:57

Grillo at rally

GRILLO AT V1 DAY RALLY:  Berlusconi! Mafioso!  Remember what he said in his newspaper!

13:21

CORCORAN:  Senator Cantoni was also one of the 24 politicians outed by Beppe Grillo – as having a criminal record.

13:27

GRILLO READS FROM LIST ON STAGE:   Cantoni, Giempiero. ‘Go Italy Party’ – Corruption and bankruptcy.

13:34

CORCORAN:  The Senator’s conviction for corruption dates back to the early ‘90s, when he ran one of Italy’s top banks.

13:39

Cantoni

He insists he was the victim of politics, and copped the verdict and a hefty fine, rather than go through the stress of an appeal.

13:46

CANTONI:  I have never given a lira to anyone, and I have never received a lira from anyone. I’m at peace with my conscience. But at that particular moment, on the advice of my doctors, I negotiated to end an unfortunate affair in which I became involved without any guilt on my part.

13:54

Grillo at rally

CORCORAN:  Beppe Grillo, he says, is entertaining, but politically irrelevant.

14:25

CANTONI:  Maligning politicians, putting them in the stocks,

14:30

Cantoni

jeering at them – it’s profitable comedy that gets results, but politically he has no future.

14:34

Grillo

GRILLO:  Once they’re elected they become senators and MPs. They get parliamentary immunity and they’re automatically clean. Enough! Enough!  These politicians must go, and so must the current crop of journalists and publishers we’ve got in Italy.  They must all go home.  We start again from the bottom!

14:47

Berlusconi montage

Music

15:08

CORCORAN:  In one sense Grillo is already destabilising the old order – breaking their stranglehold on the media.

15:20

In Italy, political power is derived through ownership of TV and newspapers. All take an openly partisan stand – and receive billions of euros in State funding. And the biggest media powerbroker just happens to be Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

15:30

Grillo

GRILLO:  Out with the journalists! Let’s get rid of public funding for newspapers - and above all, let’s get rid of the TV laws that allow – the only country in the world – a dwarf with asphalt hair – Berlusconi – asphalt head – to have 3 TV networks and 20 newspapers and be Prime Minister. Such a thing doesn’t exist anywhere in the world!

15:51

Naples

16:15

Fico at internet café

CORCORAN:  Back in Naples, environmental activist Roberto Fico is on line. He’s a local organiser for Beppe Grillo.

Anger over the garbage crisis has driven thousands to join his branch of Friends of Beppe on the Meet Up networking site.

16:19

Computer screen maps

CORCORAN:  And what do the red dots symbolise – what do they mean?

FICO:   The Meet Ups now – happening now – at this moment.

CORCORAN:  With little or no mainstream media coverage, this is how Beppe Grillo pulls the crowds and collects hundreds of thousands of signatures.

16:38

FICO:  We have 507 Meet Ups, 260 cities, 25 countries.

CORCORAN:   This is the virtual world – this is virtual politics?

FICO:  This is the virtual world, but it is real politics.

16:54

Grillo on stage at rally

CORCORAN:  While they’ve been slow to counter this tech-savvy network, the Berlusconi Government has come up with a way of shutting Grillo down. In Italy all journalists have to be licensed by the state – a process that can take years.

17:10

Cantoni

CORCORAN:  Do you support the call put by some political leaders in this country, that bloggers should be licensed as journalists, that there should be some control over their activities?  

17:37

CANTONI:  Yes, absolutely.  You need rules, because when you go onto a blog, in a medium with so much penetration in the culture and among individuals… an influence in people’s lives… it’s necessary to have regulations and controls – not to censor, but to make those who use this medium responsible for it.

17:49

Grillo

GRILLO:  They’ve been caught on the hop, they can’t even open a laptop. Their average age is 70. They’re planning a future that they’re never going to see.

18:27

Grillo on stage at rally

CORCORAN:  Faced with Government restrictions Beppe Grillo says he’d simply move his blog offshore.

18:44

He’s a seasoned political campaigner who knows instinctively what the crowd wants to hear.

18:50

Grillo leaves stage

Grillo leaves the stage, pumped by another successful performance –  but he refuses to take the next step – of running for political office.

19:02

Grillo

GRILLO:  Politics isn’t my life. I practise politics every day anyway, but getting into politics isn’t my job.  I’m not a danger - I don’t want to be President of Italy or Prime Minister. I’m a comedian.

19:12

Rappers on stage at rally/ Grillo with supporters

Music

19:28

CORCORAN:  The reality is that Grillo can fill the squares with his calls for political revolution, but when the show’s over, Italians still go out and vote for the old Order.

CANTONI:  Can I say one last thing?

19:37

Cantoni

I don’t trust men with clean hands, because often they are men who’ve always kept their hands in their pockets. So they’ve never got dirty, because they’ve never worked at difficult times in their country or their lives

19:55

Grillo

GRILLO:  But then they can’t accuse me of any more than that. That’s why I win, and I am winning – not me, but the combination of me and the net – because I don’t have anything serious to hide.

20:17

Rapper at rally

Music

20:29

CORCORAN:  Beppe Grillo – Italy’s Clown Prince of politics -- has shown a younger generation how to exploit the political possibilities of the internet.   And that, in the eyes of the old guard, may be his biggest crime.

20:34

Music

20:48

Credits

Reporter: Mark Corcoran

Camera: David Martin

Editor: Garth Thomas

Producer: Ian Altschwager

20:59