ROME — A populist with wild hair, a booming voice and untucked shirts, Beppe Grillo now holds the fate of Italy — and to some extent Europe — in his hands. After winning a quarter of the votes in last week’s national election, Mr. Grillo, a comedian turned activist, is being courted by Italy’s traditional political players, but having thumbed his nose at them for years, he is having none of it. He has ruled out such alliances, throwing Italian politics into a logjam.
He refers to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who sought a return to power, as “the psycho dwarf” and has steadfastly rejected appeals by Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the center-left Democratic Party, to join forces to govern, dismissing him as “a dead man walking.”
In a rare interview at his seaside home in Marina di Bibbona on Sunday, Mr. Grillo said it would be “inadmissible” for him to ensure the stability of a future Italian government. “It would be like Napoleon making a deal with Wellington.” Leggi il resto