Grillo: Let Italy vote online on euro

The leader of the Five-Star Movement has said he wants an online vote on Italy’s membership of the euro, in an interview with a German magazine published yesterday.

“I am a strong advocate of Europe. I am in favour of an online referendum on the euro,” Beppe Grillo told Bild am Sonntag.

Such a vote would not be legally binding in Italy, where referendums can only be used to repeal laws or parts of laws, but would carry political weight. Grillo has said in the past that membership of the euro should be up to Italians.

The spectacular showing of the Five-Star Movement, which gained 26% of lower house votes in its first ever parliamentary election, rattled markets with concerns that the political newcomers could turn against austerity measures and membership of the euro, and plunge the eurozone back into crisis.

The three leading groups to emerge from the vote have yet to agree on how to form a government. The centre-left group took a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate, meaning it must agree an alliance with either Five-Star or traditional rivals the center right in order to govern.

Grillo — who did not run for a seat himself as he has a criminal conviction which excludes him under his own movement’s rules — has repeatedly said his group will not enter a coalition, but would supporting individual bills in line with their programme.

The former comedian also said he was in favour of Italy repurchasing its government bonds and renegotiating the interest rate.

“In reality, Italy has long been lost. In one year we won’t have enough money left to pay the pensions and wages of those working in the public sector. There’s not much left to rescue,” he said in the interview.

Five-Star activists symbolically entered the lower house of parliament on the day when it opens to the public once a month, “to get to know the place.”