Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo (; born 21 July 1948) is an Italian comedian, actor,
blogger
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
, and politician.
He has been involved in politics since 2009 as the co-founder (together with
Gianroberto Casaleggio
Gianroberto Casaleggio (; 14 August 1954 – 12 April 2016) was an Italian entrepreneur and political activist, born in Milan.
He was co-founder and chairman of Casaleggio Associati srl, an internet and publishing company that advises on networ ...
) of the Italian
Five Star Movement political party. Grillo became one of the most prominent examples of the
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
surge which arose in Europe during the 2010s.
Early life and career
Grillo was born in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, Liguria, on 21 July 1948. He studied as an accountant but did not finish university. After high school, he became a comedian by chance, improvising a monologue in an audition. Two weeks later, he was discovered by Italian television presenter
Pippo Baudo
Giuseppe Vittorio Raimondo Baudo (born 7 June 1936), known as Pippo Baudo, is one of the most famous Italian television presenters, with a career spanning six decades. He is often nicknamed "Superpippo" (referencing the Italian name of Super Go ...
. Grillo participated in the variety show ''Secondo Voi'' from 1977 to 1978. In 1979, he participated in ''Luna Park'' by
Enzo Trapani
Enzo Trapani (1922–1989) was an Italian screenwriter, set designer, TV show producer/director and film director.Pruzzo & Lancia p.118
Selected filmography
* ''Turri il bandito'' (1950)
* ''Destiny'' (1951)
* ''Brief Rapture'' (1951)
* ''Viva il ...
, and in the variety show ''
Fantastico''.
In the 1980s he appeared in the shows ''Te la do io l'America'' (1982, four episodes) and ''Te lo do io il Brasile'' (1984, six episodes), in which he narrated his experiences of visits to the United States and Brazil. This led to his appearance as the protagonist of another show, developed especially for him, called ''Grillometro'' (''Grillometer''). In 1986, he appeared in a series
of prize-winning advertisements for a brand of yoghurt.
Soon afterwards, his performances began to include political satire that offended some Italian politicians. In 1986 during the Saturday night television show ''
Fantastico 7'', he attacked the
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...
and its leader
Bettino Craxi
Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...
, then
Italy's Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC). As a consequence, Grillo was effectively banished from publicly owned television.
Exile from television
Since the early 1990s Grillo's appearances on television became rare; according to
Mark Franchetti, politicians were offended by his jokes. When one of his shows was allowed to be broadcast live by
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
in 1993, it obtained a record share of 15 million viewers. Grillo often accuses the public broadcaster RAI of "public financing for the parties" that abuse it for their own propagandist needs.
Grillo also took aim at the
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...
, which directly led to him having less television appearance after the mid-1980s.
Grillo also criticized Biagio Agnes, then the director of the
STET, for dishonest business practices.
By the early 1990s, Grillo was known for his anti-establishment comedy as well as the denunciation of public policies.
While it did give him attention and the beginning of his political base, it also directly led him to the lack of television appearances.
In 2007 he collaborated with the italian singer
Giorgia for the song "Libera la mente", from her album ''Stonata''.
Despite this exile, excerpts from Grillo's
Five Star Movement political rallies are often broadcast on television, especially on political debate talk shows. On 19 May 2014, Grillo returned to Italian public television, RAI to participate in the popular late-night political debate talk show
Porta a Porta
''Porta a Porta'' (literally ''Door-to-door'') is an Italian late night television talk show hosted by the Italian journalist Bruno Vespa
Bruno Paolo Vespa (born 27 May 1944) is an Italian television and newspaper journalist.
A former directo ...
as part of his campaign for the
2014 European Parliament election
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014.
It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
. The program attracted three million viewers. , Grillo performed on stage in Italy and abroad. His themes included energy use, political and corporate corruption, finance, freedom of speech, child labour,
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
and technology.
Blog and web enthusiasm
Looking for another outlet, Grillo eventually turned to the internet. This started when Grillo met a manager of a small internet firm named
Gianroberto Casaleggio
Gianroberto Casaleggio (; 14 August 1954 – 12 April 2016) was an Italian entrepreneur and political activist, born in Milan.
He was co-founder and chairman of Casaleggio Associati srl, an internet and publishing company that advises on networ ...
. He expanded his influence to a larger audience with his website ''beppegrillo.it'' once the site was launched in January 2005.
The internet was seen as an alternative source for media which ran contrary to the mainstream media. Hence, Grillo was able to gain many followers who became disillusioned with mainstream Italian media. Over time, it also became seen as the "headquarters" of the Five Star Movement and the main hub of its activity, rather than a physical location. A year after its launch, it became recognized by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine as one of the most influential websites to date.
Despite the website's success, there were a number of other websites used to ramp up support for Grillo. One such site was
Meetup
Meetup is a social media platform for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interests, hobbies, and professions. It was founded in 2002 by Scott Heiferman and four ot ...
, which was used to organize rallies and campaigns making Grillo's progress even more apparent. The website was also used to discuss the political stances of Grillo as well as any other politically affiliated topic referring to Grillo.
As of 2014, Grillo maintained a blog in Italian, English, and Japanese that is updated daily. According to
Technorati
Technorati was a search engine and a publisher advertising platform that served as an advertising solution for the thousands of websites in its network. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008, and at one time was one of the largest ad network ...
, the blog ranks among the 10 most visited in the world. In 2008, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' included Grillo's blog among the world's most influential. He often receives letters from prominent figures such as
Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro (; born 2 October 1950) is an Italian politician, lawyer and magistrate. He was a minister in government of Romano Prodi, a Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senator, and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a prosecutor i ...
(former Italian Minister of Infrastructures),
Fausto Bertinotti
Fausto Bertinotti (born 22 March 1940) is an Italian politician who led the Communist Refoundation Party (''Partito della Rifondazione Comunista'') from 1994 to 2006. On 29 April 2006, after the centre-left coalition's victory in the Italian ...
(former President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies),
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ( ...
, and
Nobel Prize Winners
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
including
Dario Fo
Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...
,
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the ...
, the
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
and
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance ...
. As Grillo became more and more involved in Italian politics, the use of his blog to convey a political message was accompanied by a strong emphasis on the role of the Web as the harbinger of new possibilities for direct democracy and for a fairer society, making Grillo one of the leading popularisers of
digital utopianism in Italy.
As of mid December 2017, the English and Japanese versions of the blog seem permanently defunct. The last entry in the English section is from November 2015, and in Japanese from October 2011. The Italian version, however, continues to be updated daily.
Political career
Activism
On 1 September 2005, Grillo used money donated by readers of his blog to buy a full-page advertisement in the Italian newspaper ''
La Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...
'', in which he called for the resignation of the
Bank of Italy
The Bank of Italy ( Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', informally referred to as ''Bankitalia''), (), is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, via Nazionale, Rome. The bank's cur ...
's then governor
Antonio Fazio over the
Antonveneta
Banca Antonveneta S.p.A. was an Italian bank based in Padua, Italy. The bank was absorbed into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in 2013.
In 2008, it was the 9th largest banking group in Italy in terms of customer loans and the 8th largest in te ...
banking scandal. In October 2005, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' chose him as one of the "European Heroes 2005" for targeting corruption and financial scandals.
On 22 November 2005, Grillo bought a page in the ''
International Herald Tribune'', saying that members of the
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...
ought not to represent citizens if they have been convicted of a crime, even in the first degree of the three available in the Italian system. He maintains a regularly updated list of members of the Italian Parliament who have been convicted in all three degrees on his blog.
On 26 July 2007, Grillo was permitted to speak to the members of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
in Brussels, where he drew attention to the state of Italian politics.
V movement
Grillo has led several national and international political campaigns. On 8 September 2007, he organized a "V-Day Celebration" in Italy; the "V" stood for ''
vaffanculo'' ("fuck off"). During the rally, he projected the names of 24 Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes including corruption, tax evasion and abetting a murder. More than 2 million Italians participated in this rally. He also used the rally to urge Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a "Bill of Popular Initiative" to remove from office Italian parliamentarians with criminal convictions.
According to Internet scholars Alberto Pepe and Corinna Di Gennaro, V‑day was the first political demonstration in Italy developed and promoted via the
blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...
and the
social networking services. The second V-Day took place on 25 April 2008, in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
, San Carlo Square, dedicated to the Italian press and the financial support it receives from the government. Grillo strongly criticized the Italian press for the lack of freedom,
Umberto Veronesi
Umberto Veronesi (; 28 November 1925 – 8 November 2016) was an Italian oncologist, physician, scientist and politician, internationally known for his contributions on prevention and treatment of breast cancer throughout a career spanning ove ...
for his support for incinerators, NATO bases in Italy, politicians (
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...
had recently been re-elected), and the television channel
Retequattro for retaining frequencies assigned to
Europa 7br>
In August 2008, Grillo was the subject of a report on the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
's international affairs program ''
Foreign Correspondent''. Entitled "The Clown Prince", the report profiled Grillo's life, political activism, the V‑Day campaign and use of the internet as a political tool.
Five Star Movement
In 2010, he started a political movement, ''Movimento 5 Stelle'', the "
Five Star Movement" to promote through the Internet his ideals about honesty and
direct democracy. The movement became a party with electoral prospects during the 2010 regional elections, with four regional councillors being elected. The party made further gains at the 2012 local elections, receiving the third highest number of votes overall and winning the mayoral election for
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
.
At the
2013 general election the M5S won 25.5% of votes, the second most popular one for the
Chamber of Deputies,
but obtained just 109 deputies out of 630 due to an electoral system which favoured parties running in coalition. In the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
the M5S is part of the
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) g ...
(EFDD) group.
In 2014, Grillo announced that he was aiming to get four million signatures to support his attempts to get a referendum on Italy's membership of the
Eurozone
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polici ...
. He collected around 200,000 signatures while the minimum is 500,000 but he announced that his project was going on despite the failure.
In June 2018, Grillo published a post on his blog in which he called for selecting the members of the Italian Senate through
sortition
In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger ...
, and possibly eventually replacing elections with sortition altogether.
Legal issues
On 7 December 1981 Grillo lost control of a
Chevrolet K5 Blazer
The Chevrolet K5 Blazer is a full-size sport-utility vehicle that was built by General Motors. GM's smallest full-size SUV, it is part of the Chevrolet C/K truck family. Introduced to the Chevrolet line for the 1969 model year, the K5 Blazer ...
as he drove on a
military road
{{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019
The following is a list of military roads worldwide.
Australia
* Part of the A8 (Sydney) between Neutral Bay and Mosman
* Military Road, part of Route 39, Melbourne
* Military Road, off Wanneroo Road just nort ...
, forbidden to civilians, from
Limone Piemonte to
Colle di Tenda
Col de Tende ( it, Colle di Tenda; elevation 1870 m) is a high mountain pass in the Alps, close to the border between France and Italy, although the highest section of the pass is wholly within France.
It separates the Maritime Alps from the ...
. Six kilometers after "Quota 1400" near the border with France the vehicle slipped on a sheet of ice and fell 80 meters into a deep ravine. In the car with Grillo were four of his Genoese friends, with whom he was spending the weekend of
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
. Grillo saved himself out of the passenger compartment before the car dropped into the void and in state of shock he managed to call for help. Three of his friends in the car lost their lives: Renzo Giberti and Rossana Quartapelle, respectively 45 and 33, and their 9-year-old son Francesco.
On 14 March 1985 Grillo was found guilty of
manslaughter.
In 2003, he settled a libel suit for defamation filed against him by
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini (, ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for th ...
. During a show, Beppe Grillo called the 94-year-old winner of the 1986
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
and Italian
Senator for Life (2001–2012) an "old whore".
When Italian judges were investigating the
Parmalat scandal, which was then the world's largest corporate bankruptcy scandal, Grillo was called to testify because he had anticipated the imminent collapse of the dairy conglomerate in one of his shows. When the judges asked how he had been able to discover that, he said that
Parmalat's financial holes were so evident that anybody who had enough ability to see them would see them, since the corporate accounting was easily accessible.
In 2012 Grillo was convicted of having defamed
Fininvest in an article published in 2004 in the Italian magazine ''Internazionale''. The compensation, equal to 50,000 euros, in addition to the costs of the proceedings, was established by the judges of the first section of the court of appeal of the court of Rome.
In September 2013 he was sentenced for defaming the former mayor of
Asti and parliamentary for
Forza Italia, Giorgio Galvagno. In 2003, Grillo had called Galvagno "a briber" during a performance at the
Teatro Alfieri in Asti. Grillo had to pay Galvagno 25,000 euros and interest from 2003 as compensation for damages, plus compensation for legal costs.
On 12 December 2013 the Tribunal of
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
sentenced Grillo in the first instance for defamation against Antonio Misiani, treasurer of the
Democratic Party. In May 2012, Grillo published on the front page of his blog a mosaic of pictures with photographs of the
PdL (Rocco Crimi),
PD (Antonio Misiani) and
UDC (Giuseppe Naro) administrators, along with those of former
Lega Nord (Francesco Belsito) and
The Daisy
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
(Luigi Lusi). The judge has provisionally recognized a compensation for Misiani and a compensation for the Democratic Party of 5000 euros.
On 14 September 2015 he was convicted by the tribunal of
Ascoli Piceno for aggravated defamation against Franco Battaglia, professor at the
University of Modena, to a term of imprisonment with suspended sentence, €1,250 fine and a provisional fee of €50,000 to the offender. In that occasion Grillo compared himself to
Nelson Mandela and
Sandro Pertini
Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985.
Early life
Born in Stella ( Province of Savona) as the son of a wealthy landow ...
.
On 31 March 2017 Grillo was formally investigated along with
Alessandro Di Battista for defamation following a police report filed by Marika Cassimatis, former candidate mayor of the M5S in Genoa.
On 11 July 2017 Grillo was convicted at the third and higher judgement level by the tribunal of
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
to a payment of 6,000 euros, a provisional amount of 50,000 euros and payment of legal fees, raised to 12,000 euros for defamation against Professor Franco Battaglia.
Over the years, Grillo has accumulated a number of fines and/or convictions for building abuse and other crimes, such as attempted instigation to disobedience by inviting police officers to stop protecting politicians.
Criticism
Grillo is often criticized for his lifestyle. In particular, critics blame him for owning a
motor yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
and a
Ferrari sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
, in contradiction with his environmentalist stance. In his blog he said he acquired both but has since sold them.
He defended himself from similar attacks from the leader of the Democratic Party on this subject, saying he earned his pay over the years and paid his taxes on them.
Grillo was also criticized for having taken advantage of the , a
tax amnesty granted by the first Berlusconi government in 2001, which Grillo had publicly opposed. Grillo said during the V‑Day demonstration that he had personally benefited by only €500.
Grillo has proposed that members of the
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...
who have a criminal record should be banned from public office. Because Grillo was found guilty of
involuntary manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...
caused by a car accident,
he cannot run for public office as a member of his own party, which prohibits those who have a criminal record from being candidates. He says he is not interested in becoming a
member of the Italian Parliament.
Despite this, in July 2009 he announced his intention to present himself as a candidate for the
PD's primary elections, which does not imply automatic presence in the Italian parliament. He also proposed that MPs should be limited to two government terms of office, after which they may not stand again.
Grillo is also criticized as being a
demagogue
A demagogue (from Greek , a popular leader, a leader of a mob, from , people, populace, the commons + leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, ...
who attacks politicians on superficial issues and their private lives, while being unable to provide a valid alternative. For example, stand-up comedian
Daniele Luttazzi
Daniele Luttazzi (; born Daniele Fabbri on 26 January 1961) is an Italian theater actor, writer, satirist, illustrator and singer. His stage name is an homage to musician and actor Lelio Luttazzi. His favourite topics are politics, religion, ...
criticized him in 2007 in an open letter published on the website of the news magazine ''
MicroMega
''MicroMega'' is a political, cultural, social and economic newsmagazine published bimonthly in Rome, Italy. The title ''MicroMega'' is probably inspired by a tale by Voltaire.
History and profile
''MicroMega'' was founded in March 1986 by the e ...
''. Luttazzi accused Grillo of being a "demagogue" and a "populist", suggesting Grillo should choose between satire and politics.
In March 2013 a commentary piece in called Grillo "The most dangerous man in Europe", described his rhetoric as anti-democratic, said he derived his energy from resentment, and cited the British writer
Nicholas Burgess Farrell who has drawn
parallels between Grillo and
Benito Mussolini.
Filmography
Grillo has appeared in three movies:
*''Cercasi Gesù'' (1982)
*''
Scemo di guerra'' (1985)
*''
Topo Galileo'' (1988)
In 2008, Grillo was featured in the documentary ''The Beppe Grillo Story'', produced by Banyak Films for
Al Jazeera English. He also appeared in archive footage in the 2017 movie ''
Call Me by Your Name''.
Public shows
*Buone Notizie ("Good News", 1991)
*Energia e Informazione ("Energy and Information", 1995)
*Cervello ("Brain", 1997)
*Apocalisse morbida ("Soft Apocalypse", 1998)
*Time Out (2000)
*La grande trasformazione ("The Great Transformation", 2001)
*Va tutto bene ("It's All Right", 2002–2003)
*Black out – Facciamo luce (2003–2004)
*BeppeGrillo.it (2004–2005)
*Incantesimi ("Enchantments", 2006)
*Reset (2007)
*V-Day (2007)
*V2-Day (2008)
*Delirio ("Madness", 2008)
*Monnezza-Day ("Trash Day", 2009)
*Movimento a cinque stelle ("5-Star Movement", 2009)
*Un Grillo mannaro a Londra ("A Werewolf Grillo in London", 2010)
*Woodstock 5 Stelle ("5-Star Woodstock", 2010)
*Beppe Grillo is back (2010)
*Te la do io l'Europa ("I'll Give You Europe", 2014)
*GrilloVSGrillo (2016)
See also
*
Gianroberto Casaleggio
Gianroberto Casaleggio (; 14 August 1954 – 12 April 2016) was an Italian entrepreneur and political activist, born in Milan.
He was co-founder and chairman of Casaleggio Associati srl, an internet and publishing company that advises on networ ...
References
External links
Official
The English version of Beppe Grillo's personal blogBeppe Grillo's fans meeting map around the world
Unofficial
*
''The Comix Who Shook Italy'' ''The New York Times'', December 2007.
''Beppe's Inferno'' ''The New Yorker'', February 2008.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grillo, Beppe
1948 births
21st-century Italian politicians
Five Star Movement politicians
Italian bloggers
Italian comedians
Italian male actors
Italian people convicted of manslaughter
Italian television personalities
Living people
Actors from Genoa
Male bloggers
Politicians from Genoa
Mass media people from Genoa
Italian politicians convicted of crimes