Italy's crusading comic Beppe Grillo completed a key phase in his battle for a 'clean' parliament on Friday by depositing 350,000 signatures supporting his proposals at the Senate.
Grillo rode to the Senate building on a rickshaw, carrying the 18 boxes containing the signatures in favour of his proposed law which would ban from parliament anyone with a definitive conviction for any crime.
The comic met Senate Speaker Franco Marini for half an hour to discuss his movement's requests, which also include limiting MPs to two terms in parliament and allowing voters to elect individual candidates, not just parties.
''It went well but I feel a bit depressed because, when we deposited the signatures, an official told me that this proposal will be absorbed into other draft laws,'' said Grillo, who has been informally banned from TV.
The Senate Speaker's office later put out a brief statement confirming the meeting.
There were few immediate reactions to the move from politicians and those there were, mostly from the Forza Italia party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, were not encouraging.
Grillo's proposals were ''mostly unconstitutional, all counterproductive and motivated by general discontent,'' said Forza Italia senator Lucio Malan.
Grillo shot into the public eye earlier this year with his ''V-Day'' initiative, in which V stands for the Italian expression corresponding to f*** off. It was directed at the many MPs currently sitting in parliament who have been convicted or are on trial.
Grillo relied entirely on his immensely popular blog - the most-read one in Italy and among the top 20 worldwide - to drum up support for the popular legislative initiative.
Legions of supporters set up impromptu stands in more than 220 Italian cities as well as dozens of foreign cities to collect the 50,000 signatures needed to lodge a petition for Grillo's Clean Parliament Law.
As well as banning MPs who have definitive convictions, the law would stop anyone convicted at the first two levels of Italy's three-tier court system from being a candidate for parliament.
According to the recent book Honourable Men Wanted, co-authored by a group of political journalists, almost 10% of Italian lawmakers are either on trial, awaiting an appeal or have a conviction, including former premier and opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi.
Grillo's campaign struck a chord with many Italians and came at a time of growing public dissatisfaction with politicians, slammed by many critics as pampered, overpaid and out of touch with reality.
The political class has been dubbed The Caste following the success of another book of the same name which exposed the inflated cost of politics and MPs's perks and privileges.
