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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Grillo: Bersani is a "dead man talking...pestering us with indecent proposals"

Right. So much for an instant Bersani-Grillo love affair (note instant). This is hilarious: 

As expected, Pier Luigi Bersani and his centre-left coalition have tried to reach out to Beppe Grillo. But Bersani didn't quite obtain the reaction he was hoping for.

On his blog, Grillo has posted a round-up of comments made during the electoral campaign by Bersani regarding both the comedian himself and the Five-Star Movement , under the headline "Bersani: a dead man talking" (see the picture). Here's a sample:
  • "There's little democracy in the Five-Star Movement." 
  • Five-Star Movement people are "web fascists. Come out call us zombies."
  • "With Grillo, we will end like Greece."
  • "Lenin is not even nearly as bad as Grillo."
  • "Grillo leads to disaster."
  • "Grillo makes promises like Berlusconi."
  • "If Grillo wins, the country will be in trouble."
  • "Grillo? He can take us out of Europe."
  • "Grillo takes people out of democracy."
  • "Grillo is a third-rate autocrat."
Grillo says in the blog post:
"Bersani is a political stalker. He's been pestering the Five-Star Movement for days with indecent proposals, instead of resigning as everyone else would do in his situation."

"Over the past twenty years, [Bersani's] Democratic Party was in government for ten years, and over the past year-and-a-half it even took part in the grand coalition government with [Berlusconi's] PdL party, backing any sort of junk proposed by Rigor Montis [Grillo's nickname for Mario Monti]."

"The Five-Star Movement won't give any confidence vote to the Democratic Party or others. It will support in parliament only the laws that mirror its programme - whoever proposes them." 
So Bersani's first charm offensive (which we explained in more detail here) hasn't been very successful, and the centre-left leader is now in a quite uncomfortable situation. Bersani will almost certainly try again, but if cooperation with the Five-Star Movement proves a non-starter, he may face a tough choice (as we pointed out in our reaction to the Italian election results):

a) Go cap-in-hand to Berlusconi and say, "Scusa Silvio, we just changed our mind. Are you still up for a grand coalition?"

b) Throw in the towel and admit that there is no alternative but to call new elections.

One last thing: it's interesting to note that several people commenting underneath the post urge Grillo to be a bit more cautious, given the "historic opportunity" the Five-Star Movement has to change Italy. Will Beppe listen?  

4 comments:

Rik said...

He can learn a lesson from Wilders becoming part of (sort of) the government and before him Fortuijn (hope I write it correctly) and Danemark.

What this teaches is basically the following:
-not go into a government if you do not can provide the personal (Fortuijn's party did and got butchered for that the next election);
-So likely stay out and do a deal;
Assure however that the deal is good. Wilders did otherwise and lost half of his seats. In Danemark the populist backers got more or less what they wanted much stricter immigration rules and it worked. Only this is not about immigration. But say get a referendum might do the job.
-donot take too much responsability for nausty stuff. The other ones made the mess let them clean it up (one of the main reasons of the Green debacle in the Netherlands). Another reason for a good deal or stay out.
-If not as said stay out and possibly do deals on seperate issues but only for a lot of change and clear in the open. Most voters will understand that, but they won't understand giving away alot for very little in return.
-Be a real opposition but try to move from oneliners to more fundamental critisism. Likely in combination iso only the soundbite, make it a oneliner backed up with the reasons. With Wilders lateron people got bored and turned away so he had to change and did with relatively succesful.

Grillo can wait a few months. The rest is likley to make an even bigger mess of it. Plus the trend is with him. Extrapolated he might become even the biggest coalition (what God forbid as the mess would be enormous as he clearly has no people to put into government).

Donot change the brandvalues like with soap, you are growing marketshare as is, in a nutshell.

jon livesey said...

I have to say that Brillo is dead right. His strategy to achieve change by overthrowing the current regime is the only practical one.

The moment he starts to get into bed with the parties that have put Italy where it is today is the moment when he begins to become like them and to lose all credibility.

If Italy doesn't need a regime change, and only needs a new coalition, then it does not need Brillo or Five Star.

Anonymous said...

jon livesey has got it and Grillo is quite coherent in his response to the flattering (and self-interested)gestures of "dead" politicians. For those of you that can read Italian browse www.informarexresistere.fr and find out the quite interesting comment by a Mr. Fabrizio Tringali under the label"Elezioni:ecco il bivio di fronte al Movimento % Stelle". Something I also recommend to our Vincenzo Scarpetta.

Anonymous said...

The EUSSR will force the "italian people" to vote again .. and again ... and again ... until they democratically pick the people to run Italy that the EUSSR will allow to run Italy.

The EUSSR did exactly the same thing in "votes" in France, Holland, Greece and Ireland, so why not Italy?

Or, maybe the EUSSR will simply install another Monti-type bankster puppet ...

Either way, Italy is screwed.