BERLIN, March 2: Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment party unexpectedly captured a quarter of the vote in Italy’s inconclusive elections, wants to renegotiate his crisis-hit country’s debt, according to a German report on Saturday.

“We are being crushed — not by the euro but by our debt,” the comedian-turned-populist firebrand told German weekly Focus.

“When (public debt) interest payments reach 100 billion euros a year, we’re dead. There are no alternatives” to debt renegotiation, Grillo was quoted as saying. Grillo predicted his country’s political system had “only six months” left before it collapsed and the state could no longer “pay pensions and public sector salaries”.

If the debt obligations didn’t change, the 64-year-old leader of the Five Star Movement said he would want his recession-struck country to leave the euro and return to the lira, the magazine said.

Drawing a comparison with the private market, Grillo added:

“If I’ve bought shares in a company that goes bankrupt, then that’s my bad luck. I took a risk, and lost.” With Italy scrambling to find a way out of the political impasse, Grillo could become kingmaker after his rogue party drew many austerity-weary Italians to its ranks.

But the party has spooked Europe with its promise to hold a referendum on the euro and cancel Italy’s debts, prompting European leaders to urge Italy to stick to its fiscal commitments and form a government as soon as possible. —AFP