the allure of cricket

Call him a comedian, a clown or a showman but Beppe Grillo is the juiciest piece of Italian political news for a while. Prime Minister Mario Monti, handpicked by President Giorgio Napolitano, is supported – more or less – by the three main parties and has focused his efforts on preventing Italy's public finances from going Greek. But Professor Monti has not submitted himself to the voters. Mr Grillo has.

In the latest round of local elections, his Five Star Movement polled about 10 per cent of the vote and won a few mayoral contests, including Parma's. The three largest parties supporting Mr Monti together scraped 37 per cent of the vote, down from 72 per cent in 2010. A recent poll suggests a third of Italians expect Mr Grillo to do very well in the next general election, ten months away – even if two-thirds think he won't be able to run the country.

More

ON THIS STORY

• Editorial Time to end Rome's political comedy
• Time slips by for Monti's reform
• Italians spurn main parties in local polls
• Draft EU report attacks Italy on economy

ON THIS TOPIC

• Italy's problems threaten to overwhelm
• Italy fears economic impact of quakes
• Sixteen dead as second quake strikes Italy
• Lazio captain arrested over match-fixing

IN OPINION

• Dennis Hastert and Dick Gephardt Rules on fiscal engagement
• John Gieve BoE's insistence on inflation targeting
• Why I was won over by Glass-Steagall
• Mihir Bose How English football came unstuck

So, what is going on? Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe, is a 63-year-old stand-up comedian from Genoa, banned from public television in the mid-1980s after he labelled the ruling Socialists "thieves" (accurately, as it turned out). In the 1990s he started touring Italy with sellout one-man shows. Chippy he may be, but he is also funny, an Italian Billy Connolly, with a distinctive accent, scruffy beard, razor-sharp tongue and a way with an audience. At that time Mr Grillo – his surname means "cricket", as in Jiminy – abhorred computers and the fast-emerging new media. He smashed PCs on stage with a hammer. Then came the internet, and with it his road-to-Damascus moment. Beppe the maverick realised the net's potential and started blogging furiously until his blog became a movement, which is now popular all over Italy.

His programme includes obvious demands that political parties routinely ignore, such as banning those with a criminal record from standing for parliament. He has simplistic solutions to difficult problems, ranging from energy to monetary issues (he moots debt default and leaving the euro). Some of his outpourings are distinctly over-the-top. He hinted enemies might try to stop him with "bombs" and in Palermo said that "the Mafia doesn't strangle its victims", the subtext being that the tax authorities do. But it is hard to discuss any of these as Mr Grillo refuses to go on TV, saying he is not the leader of his movement, only its "loudspeaker".

Showmanship, empathy, one-way communication and tight control of your party: does this remind you of anyone? Silvio Berlusconi, of course, albeit minus the fruity women. Or Umberto Bossi but without the financial scandals that have tormented the Northern League. Italians "enjoy being dramatically governed", wrote the American embassy to the state department in the 1920s. Back then, the showman was a darker, more dangerous figure: Benito Mussolini. But do we really have a weakness for larger-than-life bosses?

The answer is yes; and we are not alone. When times are tough, the way forward painful and traditional parties are offering no hope, democracies are tempted by easy solutions put forward by histrionic leaders. Obviously, tactics and tools have changed. In the beginning, it was a soapbox and a pitch in a town square; then radio and films; then TV; and now it is the internet. We could call it Populism 2.0.

Was it beyond imagination that as Greece trod its dangerous path, a maverick such as Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical left Syriza party, would appear? Or that Germany would be so fascinated by the Pirates? No, it wasn't. The Demos think-tank reckons that populist movements are also on the rise in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Hungary.

Neo-populists may not have much in common, apart from a swagger, but they are no longer fringe groups. They feel no responsibility for – and have no commitment to – the European project. In this climate they pose a real challenge to mainstream politics, which is proving ineffectual. The stage is empty, waiting for new braggadocio-mongers to strut their stuff. Back in Italy, who supports Mr Grillo? Well, a lot of well-educated people. One in three young Italians is out of work, or struggling to get by on a short-term contract that pays about €1,000 a month. The traditional parties are not listening but Mr Grillo is, or at least pretending to.

You may be tempted to point out that most Italians still back Mr Monti, a man who is the opposite of a comedian. Only Monty Python could turn this tall, bespectacled, dark-suited economist into a comic figure. But he is not here to stay. If he wants to remain in power after spring 2013, he will have to face the electorate. Mr Grillo is ready for the fray. In a lecture hall Mr Monti might have a chance. But in an internet video, or speaking in an Italian piazza, it is no contest.