Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right Northern League, has accused the Democratic party of flooding Italy with immigrants to replace Italian workers, thereby transforming the nation into a giant refugee camp. He declares that immigrants bring drugs, theft and violence. Last weekend the impact of this hate speech was made clear, with a drive-by terror attack in Macerata, central Italy. A gunman named as Luca Traini, 28, a candidate for the Northern League in last year’s local elections, went on a two-hour shooting rampage in his car, apparently targeting people of colour. Six were wounded before Traini was arrested, giving a fascist salute as police led him away. At his home, officers found a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and a flag with the Celtic cross, a symbol often used by far-right parties.
Yet the most frightening thing about the Macerata episode is how mainstream Traini’s views are. The Northern League has formed a coalition with another far-right anti-immigrant party, Brothers of Italy, as well as with the disgraced former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. This bloc is expected to win the March election. Berlusconi and his allies have for years been encouraging hatred against foreigners, demonising them and creating a situation in which violence against them seems inevitable. [...]
The political agenda of the Berlusconi-backed coalition is virulently anti-immigrant, defending what it calls a “pure race”. One of its candidates, Attilio Fontana, has said that all immigrants threaten the survival of “the white race”. He even bragged in Italy’s main newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, newspaper that his proudly racist views boosted his popularity.
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