Five Star Movement’s populist leader compares Greek bailout talks to ‘explicit nazism’ and says Italy must use its €2tn debt as leverage against Germany

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The populist leader of Italy’s second largest political party has called for the nationalisation of Italian banks and exit from the euro, and said the country should prepare to use its “enormous debt” as a weapon against Germany.

Former comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, who transformed Italian politics when he launched his anti-establishment Five Star Movement in 2009, has long been a bombastic critic of the euro.

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But his stance hardened significantly in a blogpost on Thursday in which he compared the Greek bailout negotiations to “explicit nazism”.

Grillo constructed what he called a “Plan B” for Italy, which he said needed to heed the lessons of Greece so that it was ready “when the debtors come round”.

His plan called for Italy to adopt a clear anti-euro stance and to shake off its belief that – if forced to accept tough austerity – other “peripheral” countries would come to its aid.

Grillo said Italy had to use its enormous €2tn (£1.4bn) debt as leverage against Germany, implying that the potential global damage of an Italian default would stop Germany from “interfering” with Italy’s “legitimate right” to convert its debt into another currency.

He said Greece’s hand had been forced by the threat of bankruptcy to its banks, and that Italy therefore needed to nationalise its banks and shift to another currency.

“[This] is how not to lose the first battle we will face when the time comes to break away from the union and the European Central Bank,” Grillo wrote.

Setting aside Grillo’s colourful language and analogies, analyst Vincenzo Scarpetta of Open Europe said there was some merit to his arguments.

“That blogpost does have some elements of truth,” Scarpetta said. “The lesson from Greece was that if you want to be in the eurozone you have to agree to rules of austerity.”

The strength of anti-euro sentiment in Italy is easy to overlook since Matteo Renzi, the centre-left prime minister and head of the Democratic party, is a strong defender of Italy’s role in the eurozone. But Scarpetta pointed out that supporters of the Five Star Movement, coupled with supporters of the rightwing Northern League, which is also anti-euro, means that about 40% of Italians are at least sympathetic to anti-euro sentiments.



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“The Greek deal and negotiations have helped them [anti-euro Italian leaders] make the case that it is impossible to reform the euro from the inside, and that is why they say that Italy should leave,” Scarpetta added.

Grillo also took a broad swipe at Washington and the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) trade agreement, claiming it would turn Europe into a subject of the US in the same way Europe had become a subject of Germany.

The blog could make for especially tough reading for Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras. “It would have been hard to defend the interests of the Greek people worse than Tspiras did,” Grillo said.



The Five Star Movement broke through in the 2013 general election, and has emerged as a strong anti-corruption voice. Grillo has supported sustainable domestic energy sources, campaigned against an expensive high speed rail project that environmentalists have criticised, and long argued that the euro favours large institutions rather than small investors.

He has been criticised in some quarters for his populism and for Five Star Movement’s lack of detailed policy proposals.

Grillo, who cannot stand for parliament because of a conviction for manslaughter, garnered unwanted attention in September last year by posting a blacked-up picture of a government minister on his blog, a day after implying Italy’s immigration policy could be “re-importing” tuberculosis.