Anti-establishment Five Star Movement
(M5S) leader Beppe Grillo posted an interview Tuesday he granted
to the monthly magazine S on his widely-followed blog, in which
he said it was "natural" that his party would govern the
country.
"We were created and we continue to grow in a spontaneous
way, without an ideology. We are not a manmade product invented
as an advertising campaign nor are we a phenomenon of the
'doping' of politics. We are a consistent and real force, and
thus it is natural that we will govern this country".
"I do not expect that we will not have problems, nor have I
ever expected this," he said in reference to recent problems the
party has faced in Rome, Genoa and Palermo. "What we are
achieving is representing a solution for Italian citizens who
want to be the protagonists of their country's political life
again."
Grillo added in the interview that the example of the mayor
of the Sicilian town of Bagheria, Patrizio Cinque, who belongs
to his party, should be followed in terms of fighting against
the mafia.
Former prime minister and current head of the Democratic
Party (PD) Matteo Renzi commented on the interview by writing in
a Facebook post that Grillo "uses the anniversary of the Capaci
massacre to engage in polemics concerning the PD and the mafia.
I ask all democrats to avoid falling into his trap and not to
respond to him, because today should unite Italians and not
divide them".
He was referring to the killing of Italian anti-mafia judge
Giovanni Falcone near the town of Capaci by the Corleonesi Mafia
on May 23, 1992. Falcone, his wife and several police officers
were killed in the bomb attack, which was so powerful it
registered on local earthquake monitors.
Grillo claimed in the interview that PD had sent an implicit
message to the mafia that they would not bother them.
'Today's commemoration," Renzi went on to write, "is above
all pain. Without rhetoric we can say that the state that in
those times did not manage to save some of its best children is
today stronger and firmer. But this is precisely why we must
safeguard its memory, because the ideals for which Falcone
lived, for which the martyrs of Capaci had their blood shed, are
the foundation for our future. Let's not be divided today.
Everyone must work together against the mafia. Long live Italy."
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