By The Huffington Post News Editors

By Gavin Jones
ROME, March 7 (Reuters) – Beppe Grillo stirs strong feelings. His supporters believe he can clean up Italian politics and give ordinary people more say in decision-making. His opponents see a dangerous populist who evokes memories of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
International media describe Grillo as a comic, which on one level he is, but the man who jointly created and leads the party that in just three years has become the largest in Italy is much more than that.
Behind his tirades against the political and business elite is a shrewd mind, a hugely influential alter ego and the desire to win complete power in the euro zone’s third largest economy.
“The left and right will govern together on the ruins they’ve created, it will last a year at most, then our movement will change the world,” Grillo said after his party’s triumphant performance in last week’s election.
Grillo has made all the headlines since the vote, but he is only half the story of his anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. Most of the strategy is decided by Gianroberto Casaleggio, an Internet expert who seldom appears in public.
“A single man in command is not democracy,” said Pier Luigi Bersani after his Democratic Party (PD) was beaten into second place in the vote. “Behind Bersani is the PD, I want to know what is behind Grillo.”
The answer is Casaleggio, and his Milan-based firm Casaleggio Associates whose business is to create websites and web-based marketing campaigns for clients.
The two men met in 2004 and the following year Casaleggio’s company created Grillo’s hugely successful blog. Casaleggio has been running Grillo’s public activities ever since. They are joint founders of the 5-Star Movement.
In one of the best debut performances by any party in Western Europe since World War Two, 5-Star took 26 percent of the vote, outstripping the PD and Silvio Berlusconi‘s centre-right People of Freedom.
“Unless the other parties change their …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post