ITALY: Racism and fascism (1)
01 January 1991
ITALY: Racism and fascism
artdoc August=1994
Italy's General Election: the impact National Alliance
appointments
The AN won five portfolios in Berlusconi's cabinet - agriculture,
transport, post, the environment and cultural affairs. Giuseppe
Tatarella, who has received the posts and telecommunications
port-folio, also acts as one of Berlusconi's deputy prime
ministers. As such, he has become the first neo-nazi to be
admitted to the European Union's Council of Ministers. Tatarelli,
described as Fini's right-hand man, was first elected to the
Italian parliament as an MSI candidate 15 years ago (Guardian
11.5.94).
Twelve of the 37 junior ministers appointed to government are
members of the National Alliance, and all drawn from the ranks
of the MSI. A police trade union have called for Maurizio
Gasparri, a junior at the interior ministry, to have his brief
extended to include responsibility for policing. The MSI have
also been given deputy ministerships in all key ministries -
foreign affairs, defence, finance, justice and education
(Guardian 14.5.94).
Northern League appointments
The Northern League has got the two posts it most coveted.
Roberto Maroni has been named interior minister (he is also a
deputy prime minister), and Francesco Speroni heads
`Institutional Reform'.
But the appointment that has aroused most controversy is that
of Irene Pivetti, as parliamentary speaker. Described as a
Catholic fundamentalist, she is regarded as an anti-Semite who
supports fascism. Ms. Pivetti, a former Milanese journalist who
edits a Catholic monthly, Identita, has been quoted in an
Institute of Jewish Affairs annual report as having written an
article in L`indipendente which `denies the existence of anti-
Semitism in Italy today and cites several Jewish characteristics
as the cause of Jewish persecution in the past'.
In November 1992 Pivetti referred, in a newspaper article, to
the public outcry over the spraying of Stars on David on Jewish
shopkeepers windows as `hysterical witch-hunts'. At the time of
the Institute of Jewish Affairs report, Ms. Pivetti had called
on the Italian Minister of Interior to take legal action against
IJA referring to `Jewish freemasonry'.
Interviewed in Le Monde, Pivetti spoke of the Jewish deicide
(assassination of Jesus and therefore of God) as `a historical
fact reported by the gospel as well as by other sources' (Jewish
Chronicle 22.4.94 Il Manifesto 26.4.94).
Her reputation as an anti-Semite is also fuelled by her
disagreement with Pope John Paul II who proclaimed Jews the
`elder brothers' of Christians. `I don't see why people who
belong to a false religion should be considered our elder
brothers' Pivetti retorted (International Herald Tribune
25.4.94).
Pivetti is also an admirer of Archbishop Lefebvre, a right-wing
French cleric who died in 1991. She wears the heart and cross
symbol adopted by the counter-revolutionaries of the Vendee
during the French revolution (Guardian 23.4.94).
In her most recent interview, given to the Italia Settimanale,
Pivetti voiced admiration for Mussolini's policies toward women.
Her views undoubtedly stem from a fundamentalist Catholicism. She
maintains that other religions have to be considered inferior,
since Catholicism `is the only true, revealed religion'. Pivetti,
it seems even goes too far for the Northern League's Umberto
Bossi. `Like all Catholics, Irene is often prey to the sort of
fundamentalism worthy of Ayatollah Khomenei', he said
(Independent 23.4.94).
The new administration and immigration
What will the election of the new government mean in terms both
of immigration policy and policy towards immigrants living in
Italy? Il Manifesto points to ambiguities in the government
attitude to immigrants and stresses that the hostility of the
government's electoral campaign has not yet been followed by the
floating of any new repressive policy. In fact, the low costs of
ille