Grillo vows M5S 'will govern Italy'

(ANSA) - Rome, May 23 - 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."