Beppe Grillo: 'The Only Thing Growing In Italy Is The Debt'

Meet Beppe Grillo, the comedian running for President of Italy.

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Beppe Grillo Holds Gigantic Rally In Milan

BusInsider

In this coming weekend's Italian election, there's obviously a lot of attention paid to Silvio Berlusconi, and whether or not he'll make a strong, comeback showing.  But the politician that a lot of folks are watching is Beppe Grillo, the head of his own "Five Start Movement" party, which has a very strong populist, anti-Eurozone, anti-banker bent.

If he has a huge showing in the election -- and the last polls had him in 3rd place, even ahead of Mario Monti -- then that could cause a major political disturbing.  Anyway, he had a huge rally in Milan tonight. Anywhere between 70k-100k showed up to hear him.

Vedo la folla presente a P. Duomo a Milano per @beppe_grillo e ho paura perché tutti stanno ascoltando il nulla twitter.com/FGoria/status/…

— Fabrizio Goria (@FGoria) February 19, 2013

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Profile from Bloomberg:

'Debt is the only thing growing in our economy.'

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Beppe Grillo, the Italian comic poised to play a spoiler in this month's national elections, says the country's debt must be renegotiated.

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Interview with Beppe:

Comedian Beppe Grillo Wants to Be Taken Seriously

Beppe Grillo, founder of the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement, spoke to WSJ's Giada Zampano in Verona, as he hits Italian piazzas in his "tsunami" tour.

Further reading:

Beppe Grillo: The demagogic comedian who could be Italy’s kingmaker

Comments

[DailyBail]

Grillo's small but loyal staff is extremely tech savvy. His rallies are live-streamed by a geeky engineer named Salvatore who wanders around the stage with his 3G pack on his back waving a long antenna-like pole that picks up thousands of viewers. Grillo's staff are preparing for hundreds of thousands at a rally in Rome tomorrow.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/51624/youth-italy-back-comic-beppe-grillo-over-political-heavies#ixzz2LYvyhCxi

[Miguel Grande]

Italians will never stoop so low as to allow a comedian to represent them. Take Berlusconi as an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_RxtqbKaBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ity93J_eaEE&feature=player_embedded

[MachtNichts]

Giuseppe Piero Grillo. Only an Italian's name can sound like a piece of an opera. After Berlusconi, the corrupt womanizer, and Monti, the appointed banker's stooge, may be it is time for a comedian. After all, who are we North Americans to judge the Italians after having elected Ronny, the cowboy, Arnie, the body builder, and Reggie's love. Show me the difference.

Joe Weisenthal from Business Insider apparently talked to 3 'high-level' (my ass) financial professionals about the upcoming elections. T h e y a r e n e r v o u s! Good. So they should be. If they don't like Grillonomics, too bad.