Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

platitude, which Beppe Grillo 17 also subscribed to at one point. But this is not all: the
encouragement on the part of Deputy Minister Castelli to use weapons in order to drive
back the immigrant “hordes”, reiterated by EU MP Speroni, yet another member of the
Northern League; the statement made by MP Giancarlo Lehner declaring gay sex to be
“violent and against nature” and the proposal of introducing chemical castration as a
deterrent to immigrants; the niceties uttered by Berlusconi himself, ranging from the
identification between the struggle to combat “illegal” immigration and the fight
against crime to the hideous description of Milan as “Islamic gipsytown”. And, last but
not least, the public statement of Northern League MP Mario Borghezio who, referring
to Anders Behring Breivik, the author of the Norwegian massacre on 21 July 2011
asserts: “violence aside, some of his ideas are excellent”.
If we were to recount all the racist overtones of Minister Maroni, an entire volume
would not suffice: to name but a few, his praise of racist vigilante patrols; the statement
“I imagine they must have mistaken it for a ship carrying illegal immigrants” to justify
a Libyan‐Italian patrol vessel opening fire against a harmless Sicilian fishing boat; the
threat to deport the entire Roma community “even if they are EU citizens”; the attack
against the magistrature, which, he claims, “favours illegal immigrants”.
Hence the severity of the latest (2011) Report on Italy drafted by commissioner for
human rights at the Council of Europe appears nothing if not understandable. Thomas
Hammarberg, after remarking that almost no progress had been made by the Italian
authorities in guaranteeing the respect for the human rights of Roma, Sinti and
immigrants, expresses the hope that the criminal code will, at the very least, be used “to
stem the continual tide of racist slogans employed by politicians”. 18 Among many
reliable reports is one drafted by Amnesty International in 2010 and published in May
2011, which laments the rapid increase in “disparaging and discriminatory comments
directed by politicians against immigrants, the Roma community and gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender individuals” that “fuel a climate of mounting intolerance”. 19
All this also goes hand in hand with a certain degree of conformism. Even among the
opposition, be it in the media or political parties, there are some who recycle and repeat,
even though in a milder form, the same patterns and clichés that form the framework of
the current government’s ideology and its alarmist, security‐oriented, emergencyfuelled
and repressive (if not explicitly racist) strategies. You would think, therefore,
that those who wish to oppose the current government would profit from playing on
the theme of racist rhetoric and discriminatory practices. Hence, for strategic reasons if
nothing else, such individuals should make an effort to adopt a diametrically opposite
style and put forward very different proposals. Sadly, this is not the case. In Italy – and
increasingly in other European countries – right‐wing populism and liberal tolerance
17 On August 2006, Grillo launched an attack, on his blog, against Minister Paolo Ferrero, who expressed an
extremely reasonable opinion: immigration is a structural trend; it must be managed through an articulate strategy
that, first of all, promotes legal entry. The answer from Grillo, dripping with vulgarity and incompetence read: “Italy
cannot accommodate all the world’s misery; if all the “young people” in search of a job emigrate to Italy, how many
Cpt centers would we need to put them up Is the minister’s house large anough”
18 Council of Europe, Report by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,
following his visit to Italy from 26 to 27 May 2011, cf. wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jspid=1826921
19 Amnesty International Annual Report 2011. State of the world’s human rights.
cf. 50.amnesty.it/rapportoannuale2011
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