Italy’s Five Star movement calls for post-election protests

The leader of Italy’s Five Star Movement has called for a protest against the reelection of Giorgio Napolitano as the Italian president.
On Saturday, Beppe Grillo called the reelection a “coup d’etat” and asked Italian people to gather in front of the Italian parliament.

“Tonight I will be in front of parliament. I will stay there as long as is necessary. There have to be millions of us,” Grillo said.

He stated that traditional parties agreed to govern the country in a coalition to preserve the status quo.

Earlier in the day, Napolitano was reelected as the president of Italy after accepting an appeal by the country’s major political parties to stand for a second term.

In their sixth round of voting, 1,007 Italian lawmakers and regional representatives voted for Napolitano, putting an end to a two-month political deadlock.

He is expected to put together a broad coalition government to tackle the country’s financial crisis.

Over the past decade, Italy has been the slowest growing economy in the eurozone.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain.

The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive demonstrations in many European countries.