Leading article: Uncivilised behaviour
Friday, 27 June 2008
Italian voters knew what they were getting when they returned Silvio Berlusconi to power in May. The former leader's partners were the notoriously xenophobic Northern League. And, in a pitch designed to pander to the national hysteria over crime, Mr Berlusconi had promised to get "tough" on foreigners, in particular, Italy's 150,000 Romany gypsies.
The new Prime Minister has certainly wasted no time in pursuing this agenda. His government is preparing a Bill that will step up expulsions of illegal migrants. This crackdown has been preceded by police raids to tear down unauthorised gypsy settlements and evict their occupants. And now Mr Berlusconi's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, is proposing that all of Italy's gypsies are fingerprinted.
This official stigmatising of the Roma appears to have unleashed popular furies. There have been vigilante attacks on Roma camps across Italy, mass house burnings and assaults on isolated gypsies by gangs of thugs.
Last month, the European Parliament censured Italy for its treatment of foreign nationals. But the truth is that Italians themselves will suffer just as much as a result of this spasm of cruelty towards foreigners. Italy relies on migrant labour to fill all manner of jobs, from cleaning to caring for the elderly. It is estimated there are more than a million foreign domestic helpers in the country; most of them have an irregular immigration status and stand to be ejected under Mr Berlusconi's new law.
And then there is the less tangible, but no less significant, damage to Italy's reputation. Every act of popular violence against foreigners, every instance of official discrimination against the Roma, diminishes the country's claim to be regarded as a civilised nation.
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Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
14 Comments
Hello everybody, I'm writing from Siena-Italy.
Those things above mentioned mean just the result of the right wing policy in Italy. In addition, we're expecting for more events like this. This is what happens when the "Malavita" (Mafia) return to power. May be just some of you know but, the Mafia Power in Italy is much larger than you would believe.
I keep on trying to resist and preserve myself between those solitary honest people which still believe in a change.
Best regards
Posted by Angelo | 01.07.08, 10:35 GMT
This is the picture sava4.strana.germany.ru/kukriniksi.jpg of www.rigaxx.narod.ru/bomba.html, what is the war correct agains the bolshevism in WW2 for Estia
Posted by Kirils | 30.06.08, 15:43 GMT
I think this is disgusting, human rights should step in like they have done for other races.
Why should Italy be able to get away with fingerprinting people, to keep tabs on where they are going & what they are doing, if this is right to do to the Roma people then you might as well throw away trust & do this to every person, where has human rights gone, more than likely threw the window, I don't hear help on this.
Come on people, this is now not back years when the Nazis took us to camp & treated us like crap, in away that is what the Italians are doing by finger printing.
Posted by huggomuffun | 29.06.08, 23:13 GMT
Although we all have our little dirty secrets, I completely agree with this article. I am one of those Italians who did not vote nor I will EVER vote for Mr. Berlsconi. (And NO I didn't vote for Bush and I do know what happens here etc etc) And just because some of my fellow Italians like to forget the fact, this does not mean that they are less true! It is a travesty that in a modern society we go backwards in regard the civil rights of all human beings.
To protect does not mean you get to discriminate..."Guantanamo docet", my friends. I am truly afraid and ashamed of my beautiful country.
Posted by Ste | 29.06.08, 16:34 GMT
I do not think that the Brits can give lessons about discriminating
foreign nationals until such a day they will join the Schengen
agreement and will allow real free movement of foreign nationals
in and out of the UK.
It is far too easy to comment about gypsies discrimination without facing the problem.
Posted by Luigi Boschin | 29.06.08, 14:25 GMT
The article is clearly biassed and is presenting a distorted, unilateral view of the issue. The author deliberately avoids to give a realistic analysis of the situation and of all the positions. This is not "journalism" but rather a political, leftist, prejudicial opinion.
The author in his conclusion seems to doubt that Italy can be regarded as a civilised nation.
This is offensive to me and to the Italian people!
I am waiting the author's excuses! If he provides me his e-mail address I'll be pleased to clarify his ideas and underestanding.
Posted by Maurizio | 28.06.08, 08:51 GMT
Thomas, are you being serious? Do you live in Italy? They have pinned down the problem, you say? What about organised crime and what it has done to the tourism industry and entrepeneurship in the last 40 years? This government is rotten at its very core. Let's not kid ourselves, shall we?
Posted by Luca | 28.06.08, 02:21 GMT
Try taking a look at website everyonegroup.com for more details of what is going on in Italy... I have lived in Italy for thirty years, and I am starting to get scared... but not of the Roma people, of Italy's politicians and public opinion!
Posted by Glenys Robinson | 27.06.08, 21:35 GMT
Italy has a right to protect it's citizens from harm. They also have the right to have tourism. The government cannot allow chaos. They have pinned down the problem and found it's coming from one group in particular. Italians are anything but racsist or cruel. But there is a limit to how much abuse the vast majority of the Italian population can take. That limit has been reached.
Posted by Thomas | 27.06.08, 18:19 GMT
I agree with Craigie. There MUST always be a balance. It is not fair when immigrants etc are given prority over national residents who have paid into a system, but it is also not fair to to condemn all immigrants and violence should never be encouraged. Balance and fairness needs to be a main policy.
Posted by Julia | 27.06.08, 14:07 GMT
14 Comments