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2. POLITICAL CLIMATE/RACIST SPEECH BY
POLITICIANS
In Article 1, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD), to which the Italian government is a Party, defines racial
discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour,
descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing
the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”
Within its obligations stemming from Article 2 of the ICERD, the Italian
government should:
“condemn racial discrimination and undertake to pursue by all appropriate means
and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms and
promoting understanding among all races, and, to this end:
(a) Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination
against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public
authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with
this obligation; […].”
e April 2008 general elections were won by the right-wing conservative party Forza
Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi, whose coalition partners include the anti-immigrant
Northern League and the right-wing National Alliance party. e new government was
constituted in May 2008. e head of the xenophobic political party Northern League,
Umberto Bossi, and three other members of the party hold top seats in the new Cabinet,
including control of the Ministry of Interior, headed by Mr Roberto Maroni, a long time
political ally of Mr Berlusconi. e National Alliance, a party formed as a successor to
Mussolini’s Fascists, is lead by Gianfranco Fini, who is also speaker of the lower chamber of
parliament. Mr Fini has a record of public anti-Romani speech, stemming back to November
2007 when anti-Romani actions last flared up in Italy. 3
e new government has capitalised on Italians’ fears about Gypsies, immigrants and
security, and despite its obligations under international human rights law, specifically fuels
already harsh sentiment with constant anti-Romani messages widely published in the media.
On 11 May 2008, Minister of Interior Roberto Maroni stated publicly that “All Romani
camps will have to be dismantled right away, and the inhabitants will be either expelled or
3 At that time, the ERRC sent a letter to the Prosecutor of Rome, Italy’s National Office Against Discrimination,
General Prosecutor and Journalists Order, requesting that each office open an investigation into hate speech by
Mr Fini who had publicly remarked that Roma considered “theft to be virtually legitimate and not immoral”
and felt the same way about “not working because it has to be the women who do so, often by prostituting
themselves.” Mr Fini was also quoted as having claimed that Roma “have no scruples about kidnapping
children or having children [of their own] for purposes of begging.” ere has been no response to the ERRC
letter since that time. For more information, see: http://www.errc.org/db/02/84/m00000284.pdf.
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SECURITY A LA ITALIANA