Famiglia Cristiana used the term in an editorial to describe recent moves by the Italian government to fingerprint and catalog all the members of Italy's Roma (aka Gypsy) community. The magazine compared the Italian government's actions to that of Nazi Germany against the Jews in Poland. In response members of the Italian government called the magazine - you guessed it - fascists.
I say good for Famiglia Cristiana. It's good to see the Italian government being called on their actions. The tactic of collectively blaming one already discriminated against ethnic group for societal problems (Italy is blaming the Roma for rises in street crime in its major cities) and singling them out for collective punishment/enforcement is straight out of the fascist playbook. And let's not forget that Rome's new mayor, Gianni Alemanno, represents a neo-fascist party and his election was greeted with the 30's-era fascist salute and chants of "Il Duce" (nickname of Italy's fascist leader Benito Mussolini). Comparing this crowd to the fascist doesn't seem to be a stretch to me.
Europe's response to Italy has been disappointing. Other than a letter of concern over the Roma policy, the European Union, which prides itself on talking up the protection of minority rights within its union, has done nothing.
Just because during the war fascist Italy was the comic relief of the Axis Powers though is no reason not to take today’s Italian government's actions seriously. Ask yourself, what would Europe's reaction had been if Berlin elected a mayor from a neo-Nazi party, whose supporters greeted him or her with chants of "seig heil" and straight-arm salutes?
No comments:
Post a Comment