​Europe really does not have the Anglo-American conservative tradition; historically, you got fascists of the right or left.  Giuseppe (Beppe) Grillo is a comedian who started the "Five Star Movement" as an internet cult, mostly followed by teenagers who are now grown up and voting for the Movement.  Five Star peddles about every paronoid political theory going, including jet trails spreading mysterious mind-altering chemicals over Rome.

After the usual leftist abuses of power, along with depression-level economic despair thanks to the European Union, Grillo's Mussolini-like movement received mounting votes.  Three years ago, Five Star actually received about a quarter of the votes, equaling Mussolini's numbers before he staged his march on Rome.  Today Grillo's numbers went over fifty percent. 

There is certainly plenty for Italians to complain about, including out-of-control immigration, a fiat currency that raises Italian products out of the international market, and subsidies for special interest groups in exchange for votes and money.  As we've noted before, Grillo's foreign policy ideas are strikingly similar to Tehran's daily pronouncements, but then Grillo's Iranian father-in-law was a major construction boss in league with the mullahs.

Not a hopeful picture.