Italy: Lega Nord calls for referendum on immigration
01 January 1999
On January 17, the separatist Lega Nord (LN) held a demonstration in Milan at which their leader, Umberto Bossi, made a cynical attempt to link immigration with crime in order to call for tough law and order measures. The meeting was attended by around 16,000 people according to official sources, although the organisers claimed that 60,000 took part. During the rally there were calls for a "referendum on immigration" by the LN leader, who also voiced his opposition to a government amnesty for "irregular" immigrants and to a multicultural society. "For citizens, crime and the control of "clandestines" is not a problem for the police and carabinieri, the truth is that citizens don't want a multiracial society", said Bossi, who also condemned proposals to grant immigrants voting rights (see article in immigration section).
The LN is adopting an increasingly racist standpoint in which immigration and criminality are viewed as synonymous. This was demonstrated with the distribution of leaflets inviting citizens to follow basic guidelines in order to avoid crime at a demonstration largely concerned with immigration issues. Mario Borghezio, from the party's policy section, expressed his views in no uncertain terms; "To bring order to Padania [the northern Italian region that the LN claim as their own] we donÆt need a mayor in his underpants, we need the Padanian stick", before being reprimanded by Roberto Maroni, a senior LN figure who preferred to stress the "democratic" nature of the movement.
Following the LN demonstration in Milan, a number of rallies were organised in opposition to racism and in favour of peaceful coexistence with immigrants in Rome, Turin and Milan, where Dario Fo, the Nobel prize for literature, participated. The Milan and Turin rallies, which were organised by youths from social centres, were specifically opposed to the setting up of shelters for immigrants awaiting expulsion, referred to by protesters as "the new lagers".
In February Bossi announced that LN militants would begin collecting signatures to force a referendum aimed at repealing the Turco-Napolitano immigration law and to back their own legal proposals on non-European immigration. They aim to collect 60,000 signatures and will work with the extreme right Forza Nuova, which belongs to the European Group along with Le Pen's Front National. The LN leader, scaremongering, went on to warn that an influx of 20 million immigrants would run Europe aground.
Further controversy has been sparked by Francesca Calvo, the LN's mayor of Alessandria, in Piedmont, who passed a decree on January 25 requiring that non-EU children produce a certificate showing that they are healthy when they apply for places in kindergardens and primary schools. Invoking the eugenics of nazi Germany, the mayor explained that good civil servants must protect the health of their citizens, especially children. She warned that the influx of non-EU immigrants risked bringing diseases which have been wiped out in Italy, such as tuberculosis, back into the country. Calvo refused to repeal the decree following widespread condemnation. Titti Salvo, regional vice-secretary of the CGIL trade union in Piedmont, said that the initiative was offensive, as well as unconstitutional, and in breach of Italian anti-racist legislation.
Another LN initiative, organised by MP Mario Borghezio in northern Italy on February 6, involved using "green cleaners" to "clean" trains of foreign "prostitutes". Three volunteers responded to his call and the group began cleaning with disinfectant the carriages where they found black foreigners, presumed to be prostitutes. Amazingly, when Mr. Borghezio was questioned about this initiative, and his proposal to introduce a form of apartheid on trains with segregated carriages for whites and blacks, he claimed not to be racist: "I want to make it clear that I am not racist", he said, "this is a solution to avoid tension and xenophobic feelings."
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