Clown takes centre stage but Italy’s rotten political system is not funny

HIS colour is canary yellow. Not red, not blue, not green. That’s the first thing that hits you when you log on to beppegrillo.it.

The 64-year-old whose Movimento 5 Stelle has just made history by becoming the largest single party in Italy, is described all over the press as an “ex-comedian”, a “populist” with “no political experience.”

But what he has is the ability to communicate and his message is coherent and convincing. His manifesto begins with “Energia” and provides a multi-step pathway to a low-carbon future. But it is significant that he headlines with energy, not carbon. By giving people the chance to use cleaner energy and less of it he is giving them the sense that they can control their own destinies. If he had harped on about how much carbon we must take out of the atmosphere if we are to survive on this planet, they would have shut down fearing they would lose something.

Most of the steps to contain energy use he suggests have long since been taken in Ireland — basic measures like building regulations and BER certificates. Most of them require the simple implementation of EU directives. But Italy hasn’t bothered. And this is why Beppe Grillo is so important. Because he sees this and wants to do something about it, starting with energy.

Many of the reform measures he talks about are the stock-in-trade of the anti-establishment movement through Europe, like cutting politicians’ pay and pensions and allow them and all elected officials two terms only. It might be blatant populism in some countries, but the Italians system needed an electoral bomb put under it. Grillo has the potential to be that bomb and that’s why so many Italians voted for him.

In Ireland we have so far only rustled up a pink shirt and a ponytail by way of a challenge to traditional politics. The reason for that is that this country works in a way which Italy simply doesn’t.

I went to work in Italy in 1989 as a refugee from our terrible recession. Unemployment was at 17%, there was mass emigration and no immigration. By contrast, Italy was booming and had just overtaken the UK as the fifth-biggest industrial power.

I was employed to teach in one of the oldest universities in the world, but an English teacher cautioned me on the day I arrived: “Forget everything you’ve ever known about universities. This is completely different.”

It sure was. All the teachers in the Department of English worked out of one room, and off an assortment of different desks and tables, some high, some low. The lecturers were still more assorted: one of them had an “allowed” degree from a UK university and few, if any, had doctorates.

As a young woman with no teaching experience I was responsible for writing, invigilating and correcting my own exams. No one even took a look to see if I was fair or not, but the results I gave out are still on my students’ records. Not that it mattered much, because there was a going rate for buying a final thesis and some of my friends were gainfully employed writing them.

Instead, I worked as a translator because, although the university employed me in November, I wasn’t paid at all until the spring. I used to sit in the English Department all weekend translating documents for the European Federalist movement, who wanted all of Europe to be like Hamburg. The whole world was then to become like Europe.

They described the Mediterranean as “la culla” or “the cradle” of civilisation. I mixed up “la culla” with “il culo” and described the Mediterranean as “the arse end of civilisation”.

Thankfully I was rescued from my translating work when I finally presented all my paper work, including a certificate saying I had graduated from primary school translated into Latin and got my first pay cheque from the university. It went into an account at one of Italy’s major banks. But I then lost my savings book.

I didn’t think this was a big deal. In recession-bound Ireland you’d just cancel it and apply for a new one, but I soon realised I was in deep trouble. I was brought upstairs to see the bank manager, who immediately reminded me of the stuffed gorilla my mother’s friend had in her hall. Not surprisingly, he said nothing, while an underling pulled out drawers. She said it was just as well I remembered when I had opened the account because if I didn’t she could not have found it.

I had to employ a solicitor to allow me access to my few schillings and I went to an employee of the university, who charged me about €2,500.

This is all a long time ago but Silvio Berlusconi dominated the political stage for most of the intervening years so where was the reform? However, as this week’s election results show, Berlusconi is not what’s wrong with Italy. He has never been charged with mafia associations and has never been accused of killing anyone.

By contrast, Giulio Andreotti, the Christian Democrat Prime Minister while I was living in Italy, had strong ties to the mafia and was found guilty, then acquitted, of a role in the murder of the journalist Mino Pecorelli who exposed these ties. All of the parties which were in coalition while I was living in Italy were later found to be “on the take” following an investigation known as “Clean Hands”. The Socialist ex-Prime Minister Bettino Craxi actually defended his actions, saying they were “the cost of politics”. It was not surprising that Berlusconi’s new Forza Italia had a clean sweep.

ITALY’S problems have their roots in its history as a collection of warring feudal city states. Unification has never worked properly despite Mussolini’s efforts. It is her ancient tradition of craftsmanship which carries the country: from high-end design to the art of making the perfect cappuccino. But all that creativity has always been threatened by an appalling political system.

It’s not surprising that it is a figure not from politics, but from Italy’s ancient clowning tradition, who is the kingmaker in the Italian political system this week. But he has so far refused to discuss entering coalition with Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left Democratic Party and has spoken instead of voting independently on issues one by one.

I see his point. Italian politics is rotten. By contrast, our political system has effectively managed us out of the biggest banking crash in history.

But the problem is that instead of that federal Europe my employers dreamed about, we only got a federal currency. In currency terms, there is no such thing now as Italy, just Europe. And we are part of it, watching helplessly from our ringside seats as a clown takes the stage.