The leader of Italy's anti-establishment Five-Star movement on Wednesday lauded political outsider Donald Trump's shock victory in the United States presidential election, calling it "the explosion of an era".
"This is the explosion of an era. It's a media apocalypse - of television, leading newspapers, intellectuals and journalists," comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo wrote on his blog.
The white-maned Grillo said Trump's stunning win on Tuesday against Democrat Hillary Clinton showed voters had given the finger to the US political establishment.
"This a general f*** off, a unbelievable V-day," Grillo said in a reference to the days of mass protests against the ruling elite which the Five-Star movement organises in Italy.
The 5-Star movement took the national political scene by storm in 2013 when it won more than 25 percent of the vote a general election, coming in a close second to the ruling centre-left Democratic Party.
In June this year it won key mayoral races including in Rome and Turin.
With Italy’s right in disarray, Five-Star poses the biggest threat to the Democratic party and has become one of Europe's most potent grassroots movements, although it has yet to prove itself in government.
