The unexpected success of a cult comic's grassroots campaign to oust convicted MPs from parliament has shaken Italy's political establishment.
MPs of all stripes accused Genoese comedian Beppe Grillo of "political cynicism", "anti-politics" and "shallow demagoguery" after hundreds of thousands of citizens turned out last Saturday to sign his petition aimed at purging parliament of MPs who have been in trouble with the law.
True to style, Grillo dubbed the campaign "V-Day" with V standing for vaffanculo (f*** off) and 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.
The bill consists of three articles, the first banning any parliamentary candidates who are on trial or have been convicted, the second preventing MPs from serving for more than two legislatures, and the third introducing direct election of MPs rather than leaving the choice up to parties.
By the end of the Saturday, Grillo had collected more than 300,000 signatures, astonishing and in some cases horrifying Italy's political class.
The bill will now be deposited in parliament, where the likelihood of it being passed remains slim.
A large number of politicians expressed perplexity at the two-term limit, which would mean MPs remaining ten years at most in politics.
Others complained that the proposal made no distinction between MPs convicted of minor crimes, such as a building abuse, and those convicted of serious ones such as Mafia-type offences.
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.
Close Berlusconi aide Cesare Previti, who has twice been convicted of corruption, resigned as MP two months ago just as the House was about to strip him of his seat in compliance with a court ruling banning him from public office.
Grillo hailed the success of V-Day as the "start of a new Renaissance" and the "Woodstock of law and order".
In an article posted on his blog, the 59-year-old comedian - who has been informally banned from TV - said "there's no stopping us now".
He also denied that he intended forming his own party, saying: "I don't want to create a party, I want to destroy parties because they are the cancer of democracy. We have to take politics back into our own hands".
In an article published in Turin daily La Stampa, Grillo attacked Premier Romano Prodi's centre-left government and the soft-spoken premier himself, whom he nicknamed Valium.
"For the most part, we never hoped for anything with the (Berlusconi-led) Right but we are doubly disappointed with the Left," said Grillo, who accused the government of failing to tackle crime, youth unemployment, white collar crime and conflicts of interest among MPs.
According to a poll published in top Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Monday, the government's ratings have slumped and it is currently considered negatively by 68% of voters compared to 57% in June.
GROWING DISSATISFACTION WITH ITALIAN MPS.
But not all politicians were worried by the Grillo phenomenon.
Public Works Minister Antonio Di Pietro, an anti-graft prosecutor-turned-politician who signed Grillo's petition, praised V-Day as a "wave of direct democracy which has shaken parliament and shown it cannot continue to play dumb".
Di Pietro, who made his name in the early 1990s leading the 'Clean Hands' corruption probes which brought down Italy's old political guard, has long been campaigning for the removal of MPs with criminal records.
Family Policy Minister Rosy Bindi commented that "MPs are facing a rebellion against politics which must be taken seriously... I lived through the Clean Hands era and there was a lot of rage against corrupt politicians. Now the rage is against the entire political class".
The Grillo campaign comes at a time of growing public dissatisfaction with politicians, slammed by many critics as pampered, overpaid and out of touch with the problems of ordinary Italians.
Indignant sentiment has been fuelled by a book on the cost of politics and MPs's perks and privileges which has soared to the top of the bestseller lists.
Written by Corriere della Sera reporters, The Caste contains dozens of examples of abuse of office, cronyism and money wasting by central and local politicians.
It notes, for example, that Italy has the largest number of MPs among industrialised countries and by far the best-paid members of the European Parliament, while the upkeep of the presidential palace costs four times more than that of Buckingham Palace.
Grillo has long been a thorn in the side of the powers that be. He has been off the airwaves since 1987 when he made a stab at Bettino Craxi - six years before the late Socialist leader's downfall amid escalating corruption scandals.
In 2005, America's Time magazine named Grillo one of its European heroes of the year, praising him for a career dedicated to denunciation-by-humour.
