Comic Beppe Grillo, his Eurosceptic message and the mobilising of the Italian public, online

The power of the net and the persuasive force of the language used, have contributed to a massive power shift in Italy. In a country where patronage discredits mainstream politicians, a comic and his political movement have stopped the established figures laughing, by finding a new freedom of speech on-line. Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement (FSM) gave a voice to the previously disenfranchised. Through his website, young mothers and unemployed engineers were selected in on-line primaries - and now hold the balance of power in Italy's centre-left coalition government. Yet Grillo, advocate of participatory democracy, has paradoxically shunned the country's political journalists who seek responses - instead directing them to his website. Is that funny? Despite Britain's apparent pervasive Euroscepticism, it is in traditionally Europhile Italy that it has gained a foothold. On-line, Grillo and his fellow grillini persuade Italians almost daily over Europe. Today it was a video posted with Grillo and UKIP leader, Nigel Farage. FSM want a referendum allowing Italians to withdraw from the Euro - part of its emancipatory online battle. The Grillini, have replaced the old powerbroker, the secessionist, right-wing and anti-EU Northern League, which kept Silvio Berlusconi and the right in power for several decades. This paper couples an analysis of the political communication achieved by Grillo on-line over Europe (comparing and contrasting with the Northern League); with a discourse historical analysis of the persuasive language used and the historical and political terrain informing Grillo's populist response. The paper will address the issues of mobilising on the net; giving a voice to the disenfranchised (as perceived by Grillo); and creating a possible forum for freedom of speech, creating a very different and often more humorous Eurosceptic message than the ones thus far subjected to analysis, but one that now needs rigorous critical evaluation.