Sunday, May 20, 2018

Italy's turn to the right

The far-right Lega leader, Matteo Salvini and the Five Star leader, Luigi di Maio, unveiled a joint policy document containing plans to build more detention centres to accelerate the deportation of an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants and review migrant rescue missions at sea after they arrive on Italy’s shores. 

The agreement also calls for “unregistered” Roma camps to be shut down.

The document calls for Muslim imams to be registered with the state. Unauthorised mosques will face “immediate” closure while proposals for the construction of new ones and their funding will be scrutinised.

In a Facebook video last week, Salvini told supporters he would rid the country of “delinquents” and dismantle the previous administration’s “€50bn [£44bn] migration reception” policy.

Mamadou Sall, president of Florence’s Senegalese association, explained, “We contribute over €20bn a year to the state – if it wasn’t for immigrants, pensions wouldn’t be paid,” he said. “They told me: ‘We’re not voting for the League because we’re racist, but because we’ll be able to retire early.’ They’ve been fooled. The proposed flat tax will also backfire – the poor will pay more and the rich will pay nothing.”

Adnan Husein, from Ghana said, “They say they don’t want migrants, but over history so many Italians have migrated, especially to America, because they had to,” he added. “I understand that it wasn’t easy for them, either. Whether a person is white or black, we are all equal, all afraid and all trying to survive.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/19/italy-far-right-lega-five-star-immigrants

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