During the same tour which took him to the Oxford seminar organised by the Axess Programme, Beppe Grillo stopped in Paris to take part in a discussion on "La Democratie en Danger". The panel included the Genoese comedian, as well as Marco Travaglio and Antonio Padellaro, two journalists from the newly founded and very successful newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, which is characterised by its strongly anti-Berlusconi views.

It was an extremely well-attended event, populated by a large section of the Italian diaspora in France. The emotional participation of the audience was equally remarkable and claps and laughter were alternated in a huge celebration of anti-Berlusconism.

The laughter was strong and genuine, but I could not help feeling a general sourness in it. The discussion was a strong, well-documented and at times extremely funny prosecution of the Berlusconi government, but there was relatively little on how Italy should try and reverse this situation. Travaglio insisted that it is only 20% of the total Italian population which supports Berlusconi, a statement which, although factually true, seems to me politically rather blind, as it ignores the question of "why him?" others have asked. The civic lists Beppe Grillo is supporting in a number of Italian cities look too fragile at the moment to constitute a genuine alternative.

As the claps of the Italian diaspora in France got louder and as its laughter became stronger, so did the feeling of the unavoidability of the much criticised but seemingly irreplaceable status quo.