Premier Matteo Renzi hit back Monday after Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), used a Mafia jibe to suggest his political career was close to ending as the campaign for Sunday's European elections grew increasingly venomous.
Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is top in most polls, but Grillo is confident his M5S, who are second in the surveys after capturing a stunning 25% of the vote in last year's general election, can come first with a late surge.
"Renzie has been hired on a temporary project to win the European elections, but he'll lose them," Grillo wrote Monday on his popular blog, using a nickname that refers to the premier's alleged attempt to come across as cool like TV's Fonzie.
"(He is among) people who have failed and, as happens with Mafiosi, those who fail, get punished," added the comedian-turned-poltician, whose stated aim is to destroy the current party system, which he says has created corruption and economic decline. "On May 26, the hunt will start for Renzie after he loses the elections. A Mafia disappearing awaits Renzi, who is a showoff, a braggart. The system hires its temporary mem. "If they manage to do what they've asked, Ok. "Otherwise, they are disappeared into nothing". Renzi, who unseated his PD colleague Enrico Letta in February to become Italy's youngest premier at 39 and has embarked on an ambitious reform programme, responded that Grillo was just talk, while he represented concrete change. "After May 26 (the day after Sunday's European elections), Europe needs to he changed because in recent years it's showing itself to be distant from the people," Renzi told a press conference after meeting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
"But those who govern manage to change things, not those who shout, those who propose things, not those who insult".
Grillo also turned his fire again on ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose opposition centre-right Forza Italia party is currently third in most polls with under 20% voter support.
Grillo had to backtrack last week after sparking an outcry by saying Berlusconi's poodle Dudù should be chopped up for science.
At a rally in Verona late on Sunday, Grillo said the M5S wass against vivisection, even for Dudù, but was in favour of it for "the owner".
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