(ANSA) - Rome, March 27 - Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo on Friday said there are disturbing similarities between the depressed Germanwings co-pilot who intentionally crashed his plane with 150 people on board and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
"There are disturbing similarities between Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps and Matteo Renzi who is at work to make Italy crash.
They are both two men alone at the helm" wrote Grillo on his blog.
Renzi was also depicted as a Germanwings pilot on the M5S blog.
The comparison met with widespread criticism on Friday.
"Even the right to freedom of expression must have a limit: not to cross the boundary of bad taste, not to use tragedies,
pain and collective anguish as material for the dig of the day. This is what Grillo has done" said Walter Verini, leader on the
House justice committee for Renzi's Democratic Party (PD).
"Only someone mad can attempt to profit from the death of 150 people using it as an excuse to attack Renzi" said StefanoPedica of the PD according to whom Grillo should abandon politics and go back to being a comedian only.
"Comparing the premier to the co-pilot of Germanwings isn't only a sign of bad taste but it is a grave offense towards the victims of a tragedy we are still mourning. It's a level of political confrontation we totally refuse" said Giuseppina Maturani, PD Senate caucus deputy leader.
"Grillo won't stop joking even if 150 people have died and he uses this tragedy as an excuse to attack the premier.
Politics has nothing to do with this. This has got to do with humanity. I have no words to express my disdain towards someone
who trespassed over the boundary of dignity " said another PD MP, Federico Gelli.
"Beppe Grillo has nothing left to say and he should have remained silent instead of expressing his nothingness by
comparing Renzi to the airbus co-pilot" said Gianfranco Librandi of the small centrist Civic Choice party.
"Grillo's words comparing Renzi to the Germanwings co-pilot are simply horrible and out of place, because they offend the
victims of the accident and their families and because they encourage the use of violent language within political
discourse" said Senate Deputy Speaker Valeria Fedeli, also of the PD.
Grillo's words were also widely commented on the M5S blog with some of his own activists criticising the ex-comedian for
his post.