In this article, Jardar Alai explains this occurence in Italy.
Photo Credit: The Irish Times
Italy was one of the leading powers of right-wing extremism in the early 20th century. Under the leadership of dictator Benito Mussolini, Italians lost the right to criticize the government, and they lost many human rights too. Italians suffered economically under the fascistic regime of Mussolini. Now 76 years after the 2nd world war Italy is seeing a rise of right-wing extremism in the country again.
Early May of this year, videos surfaced on the internet showing around 800 men in Milan standing and doing military stands and doing the heil Hitler sign. Italy in the last years has become more open to use racial slurs and remarks. All of this comes back to Matteo Salvini Lega Nord party. Lega Nord wanted to capitalize on Italy's concern over illegal immigration from across the Mediterranean. Salvini campaigned with a hardstand against immigration of so-called 3rd world countries and his slogan was "Italians first". Salvini repeatedly highlighted crimes committed by non-ethnic Italians. Where he frequently attacked Africans for being criminals, dirty swindlers and so on.
Lega Nord got a lot of support and Salvini got the influential role as interior minister. He has openly praised Mussolini and on Mussolini's birthday he tweeted one famous quote by Mussolini to his critics, 'So many enemies, so much honor'.
Salvini lost his position as interior minister on a kidnapping charge. In August 2019, a boat saved over 100 migrants, most of them were children. The boat asked to dock in Italy following maritime law but Salvini refused. For 3 weeks, migrants, including unaccompanied children, were trapped with no place to go.
As a consequence of Matteo Salvini's popularity that has created a free space where attacks on non-ethnic Italians, specially Africans, are common. Many Africans have been verbally assaulted, often using comments about their legal status in the country. Many African stores have been attacked and many stores had to close because of violence against their skin-color and ethnicity. Non ethnic Italians feel scared for their lives because of the open racism in the country.
In February 2018, Luca Traini went around on a shooting rampage in the city of Macerata, where he openly targeted people of African descent. 6 people were seriously wounded because of the shooting. When the police started investigating, they found many Nazi artifacts at his home. He had a copy of Hitlers Mein Kampf and many other far right books. They found Luca Traini as a local candidate for the Lega Nord party.
Far right parties are having a comeback in the western world but especially in Italy where open indorsement for fascistic ideals are more accepted than before and that is an immense problem for non-ethnic Italians.
Sources:
The Jerusalem post(May 6 2021) Hundreds of Neo-Nazis march in Italy https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/hundreds-of-neo-nazis-march-in-italy-667380 25.06.2021
ITV news (2018) Italians openly make fascist salutes as Italian election dominated by immigration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V6ooMzmLVU 25.06.2021
Vice news(May.28.2021) The Rise of Italy's Far Right | Decade of Hate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBR4AxCZbt0 25.06.2021