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This is a topic from the Current Politics and Religious Topics forum on inthe00s.
Subject: V-Day In Italy
Written By: philbo on 09/19/07 at 3:29 am
My favourite story of the day :D
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/09/19/do1905.xml
The Italians, however, are not reserved people. Instead, more than 330,000 of them queued for hours in the hot sun recently to tell their politicians: vaffanculo! (roughly the equivalent of "f*** you").
Led by Beppe Grillo, a chubby, bearded comic who is Italy's version of Michael Moore, the masses rallied to protest against corruption and back-slapping. The protest even reached London, with a group of expats forming a V in Piccadilly Circus.
Grillo organised the whole thing through his blog, which is now, improbably, in the world's top 10 most-read list. The success of V-Day, as it was quickly dubbed, has resulted in a third of Italians supporting Grillo for prime minister, according to a poll by Sky Television.
Grillo and his followers are not making excessive demands. They want to be able to vote for an MP directly, rather than for a party. They want no criminals in parliament (currently one in 10 has a conviction). Lastly, they want a ban on so-called "professional politicians", who serve a couple of terms to boost their business contacts and win lucrative contracts.
A very Italian revolution: one run by a comedian. It's got to happen...