Leader of fledgling Five Star movement swims across Strait of Messina to support candidates in regional vote
After stunning Italian politicians with his successful plunge into politics this year, the comedian Beppe Grillo has gone one step further and launched his electoral campaign in Sicily by swimming to the island.
The 64-year-old dived into the Strait of Messina on Wednesday and braved a chilly breeze and sporadic rain to make the 2.8km crossing from Calabria in just over an hour, after joking that the stretch of water "had looked a bit narrower on Google".
After training all summer, Grillo kept up a steady crawl across the Strait, with a flourish of butterfly stroke at the end for the cameras, emerging from the water to greet 300 cheering supporters.
Detractors were quick to compare the flamboyant comic to the likes of Vladmir Putin and Benito Mussolini, who have sought popularity through physical feats, not to mention Mao Zedong, who swam the Yangzhe river in 1956.
"But I was just poking fun at the strongman image," Grillo said after the crossing. "And if it brings people together I will do it again."
Grillo arrived in Sicily to campaign for candidates of his Five Star movement in a regional election to be held this month. The island's governor, Raffaele Lombardo, resigned in the midst of a mafia inquiry and a growing scandal over the exaggerated wages of local politicians. "We have come to wipe out the political class in Sicily," Grillo said.
Voters fed up with corruption have already heeded the comedian's call to clean up politics by electing a Five Star candidate as mayor of Parma in May. Polls suggest the movement will secure seats in parliament at national elections next year.
As Grillo left the shores of Calabria, the regional authority there was being dissolved after investigators discovered family ties between councillors and mobsters. Further north, a Milan council assessor was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly paying €200,000 to the Ndrangheta mafia to buy 4,000 votes in local elections.
Grillo said Giuseppe Garibaldi began his march to Rome after he landed in Sicily in 1860, leading to unification of the country under the Savoy monarchy, and allied armies landed on the island in 1943 before ejecting the Nazis from Italy. "Garibaldi brought the Savoys, the Americans brought the mafia, and none of them actually swam here," he said.
Grillo's supporters have recently disputed what they describe as a lack of democracy within his fledgling party, and some have criticised the role of Gianroberto Casaleggio, a shadowy adviser seen as making key decisions in the movement.
But the recent resignation of the scandal-hit governor of the Lazio region – elected on the ticket of the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi – has given a fresh boost to Grillo's movement, pushing it up to 14% in the polls in Lazio, ahead of Berlusconi's 13%.
Berlusconi, who tried for a decade to build a bridge across the Straits of Messina, chose to relaunch his political fortunes last month by boarding a Mediterranean cruise ship packed with supporters. After his ratings drooped following the Lazio scandal, he announced this week he was unlikely to stand again.
Grillo said he would now tour Sicily by camper van, jogging in front of it when entering towns. "I will be like the pied piper," he said.