Italy’s two fingers to Brussels could split Europe apart as anger over mass immigration and unemployment sweeps Continent

THE grandiose vision of a European superstate under one flag, one currency and one over-arching constitution is in chaos after Italy’s sensational two-fingered salute to Brussels.

Political leaders will frantically try to stem the wave of public fury sweeping the Continent over mass immigration and lost jobs.

But the anti-elite revolt, led by a foul-mouthed comic with a conviction for manslaughter, now threatens to engulf staunch EU member states such as France, Germany and Holland.

“Saying no is the most beautiful and glorious form of politics,” says Beppe Grillo.

“Whoever doesn’t understand that can go screw themselves.”

Woolly-haired Grillo led the charge that toppled the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Sunday, as he struggled to clean up Italy’s gridlocked and corrupt system of government.

Grillo’s insurgent Five Star Movement (M5S) vows to pull Italy out of the euro, bringing the roof down on the European Union.

Despite the landslide referendum victory, this looks a distant dream.

Every Machiavellian trick in Italy’s dodgy political playbook will be used to block him.

The real threat is to the country’s already over-stretched banks, some of which are teetering on the brink of collapse.

Although markets bounced back, interest rates on Italy’s mammoth national debt have grown, while investor confidence has disappeared along with the Renzi regime.

If Italy’s banks go bust, shockwaves will threaten others in countries with exposure to Italian liabilities.

Germany’s once mighty and now wobbly Deutsche Bank could be a casualty, with ripples spreading across the EU, including Britain.

If Grillo leads Italy out of the euro, the consequences for the world economy are potentially dire.

Perhaps unfairly, ex-PM David Cameron is in the frame as scapegoat.

EU leaders blame him for pulling the rug out from under the EU dream by offering Britain a referendum, then losing it.

Brexit not only acted as a lightning rod for change in the UK but also fuelled the anti-establishment mood sweeping Europe and the US.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU bureaucrat Jean-Claude Juncker feel betrayed by his confident promise that Britain would never vote to leave the EU.

Right up until the last moment they believed his blithe assurances that those voting Out were a Ukip minority of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”.

Thanks to his misplaced self-confidence, he failed dismally to win any of the concessions on immigration and border controls that might have tipped the vote back to Remain.

Mr Cameron cannot seriously be blamed for fuelling the anti-EU mood now sweeping Europe.

Even before our June 23 Independence Day referendum, polls showed public opinion was even more fiercely Eurosceptic in countries such as France than in the UK.

It is now possible to imagine hardline anti-immigrant campaigner Marine Le Pen taking the Front National into France’s Elysee Palace on a pledge to quit the EU.

In Germany, a recent poll revealed an ominous split in support for European rule.

A shocking 40 per cent of voters would like to follow the UK and have a referendum vote on EU membership.

The defeat of a near-fascist candidate for the Austrian presidency on Sunday will come as a relief.

But in Holland, a founding member of the original Common Market, there is a real prospect of election victory for right-wing Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders.

The noble ambition to prevent World War Three by uniting all European states peacefully under one flag, one government and one currency has spectacularly backfired.

Far from wanting to share the social and economic burden, voters increasingly blame Germany and Brussels for robbing them of a democratic say.

Jobs scrapheap

They resent the arrogant, unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats and ex-politicians who dictate terms but refuse to listen to its voters.

They blame the disastrous one-size-fits-all single currency for imposing a straitjacket on struggling economies such as Greece, Italy and Portugal.

They are dismayed by stagnant wage levels and mass unemployment, which in Italy has put two in five young people on the jobs scrapheap.

And they are furious with Mrs Merkel for inflaming the crisis by flinging open the doors to uncontrolled mass immigration, many landing on the shores of Italy.

It is almost six months since Britain put the cat among the EU pigeons with its historic referendum vote.

Today, with the European family of nations splitting in all directions, Brexit looks like an amicable divorce.

Who on Earth is Beppe Grillo?

GRILLO, 68, made his name as a comedian on Italian TV in the Seventies and Eighties.

He began his anti-austerity movement around a decade ago with V-Day Celebration rallies targeting a political class he says is corrupt.

The V stood for “vaffanculo” – the Italian for “f*** off”.

Grillo wants to remove from office all MPs with criminal convictions – which would rule out himself.

In 1980 the Five Star Movement’s leader was convicted of manslaughter following a car crash which killed three people.

Grillo wants to pull Italy out of the euro and opposes free-trade deals between the EU, the US and Canada, favouring protectionist trade policies.

That could be bad news for Britain as it negotiates with the EU post-Brexit.

He wants lower taxes for the poor and campaigns on green issues, although Grillo owns a Ferrari and a yacht.

He believes MPs should simply reflect the views of their constituents and he would recall any judged to not be representing voters.