No surprise that the Five-Star Movement (Movimento Cinque Stelle) from Italy and the UK Independence Party are getting together for an alliance in the newly elected European Parliament.

After all, they are both led by comedians:

Although Beppe Grillo is the professional comedian, I actually find Nigel Farage more humorous. Grillo comes across more as an angry, ranting old man.

It’s also a bit inconsistent of Grillo to still be hanging around after promising to step down if the Five-Star Movement doesn’t win the European elections in Italy (which it didn’t). But stepping down from what actually, as he has never been elected to anything anyway? Maybe it’s because in his megalomania he still believes that he should have received 90% of the vote.

My headline “two comedians in parliament” is actually wrong because Grillo of course won’t have a seat in the European Parliament. He, who likened himself to Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi in the election campaign, thinks of himself more like a general dispatching lowly parliamentarians into battle and watching the spectacle from the safety of his villa. Sad to see how many Italians are willing to be his pawns.

(Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels.)