Farage enthusiastic over possible alliance with Grillo

(ANSA) - Rome, June 11 - Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) said on Wednesday that he hoped Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) would agree to a political alliance with his party, noting that the two had much in common including a belief in direct democracy and the harmfulness of Brussels.
    The Euroskeptic UKIP garnered the most votes of any party in the UK in European elections last month. M5S leader Beppe Grillo, whose party got 21% of the Italian vote to finish 20% behind Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) in the elections and is also critical of the EU, has been looking into a possible alliance with either the Greens or UKIP. Farage said that he and Grillo differed only on a few policies but shared an overall vision. He rejected out of hand accusations that his party was racist. Farage told ANSA on Friday that UKIP is "a democratic organization...the classic liberal party of the 1800s," in which "any form of racism, sexism or xenophobia is not tolerated". As proof he pointed to the fact that UKIP's constituents recently elected a Muslim businessman, an openly gay man, an individual of Roma origins and "many women".
    Grillo has come in for criticism from the Italian press in recent weeks after announcing the possible alliance.