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words by Carol King

Beppe Grillo, leader of the MoVimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement, M5S) political party, swam the Strait of Messina to arrive in Sicily to support candidates in the regional vote on 28 October.

Before leaving Cannitello in Calabria the 64-year-old activist, comedian and blogger joked that the stretch of water “looked a bit narrower on Google.” He swam almost 2 miles to Torre Faro in Messina in a little more than an hour, enduring a chilly breeze and occasional rain. He celebrated his landing with a Victory-V sign.

Grillo said his swim was a symbolic gesture illustrating there is no need for a bridge to span the Strait – a dig at a project spearheaded by his political rival, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – and a protest against crookedness in Italian politics. Ever the witty showman, Grillo told the waiting crowd of supporters and reporters: “This is the third landing in Sicily in 150 years. [Giuseppe] Garibaldi was the first to land and he brought the Savoys, in the second landing came the Americans and they brought the mafia, the third to land is me with the MoVimento 5 Stelle, but none of them – Garibaldi, Nino Bixio, or Lucky Luciano swam to Sicily.”

The snap election to renew the Sicilian Parliament follows the resignation of the island’s governor, Raffaele Lombardo, in the midst of a mafia inquiry. Grillo’s party launched in 2009 and it is one of many contesting the election. Yet the populist party’s anti-corruption stance – at a time when ������ý is besieged by political scandals and corruption cost taxpayers €60 billion last year – has seen it become the second-largest bloc behind the leading centre-left Democratic Party. Berlusconi’s once-dominant People of Liberty party has been beaten to third place. M5S candidates have been elected as mayors in Parma, Mira in Veneto and Comacchio in Emilia-Romagna.

Sicily is going bust because of its credit to the Italian State and the island region claims it is owed €1 billion, which has encouraged calls for independence. Grillo said: “Sicily could live better without ������ý, but ������ý could not live without Sicily… This island needs a relaunch of local transport, the widespread availability of broadband, infrastructure for tourism, the development of its art treasures, a new economic framework based on telecommunications and the development of the digital economy, investments in start-up companies connected to the universities. It needs to keep its young people here. They are the future of Sicily. But above all else, it needs honesty within its institutions.”

Grillo’s 16-day tour of the island takes in 35 towns including Lipari in the Aeolian Islands, Modica, Marsala, Cefalù, Palermo and Catania. He will tour by camper van, jogging in front of it. Such is Grillo’s reputation for exuberant showmanship some wags have joked that he could have walked across the Strait just as easily as swimming it.

How the M5S does in the elections remains to be seen – Sicilian voters have voted for the right in recent elections. But an on an island blighted by the mafia and with high unemployment, Grillo’s message may resonate with some, particularly the young, who are increasingly forced to leave their home to seek work in northern ������ý and abroad.