Italy has become a leading example of a perilous western trend encompassing authoritarian, racist, and demagogic movements and attitudes. Developments are showing us what the anti-immigrant interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini ideologically hates most –the European Union, solidarity, anti-racism and anti-fascism. His aim is to dismantle any successful form of integration of migrants within the country (see here), while fighting internationally the EU’s normative framework in the hope of leading a Eurosceptic wave to victory in the 2019 European Parliament elections. [...]
Moscovici predictably compared Italy to an illiberal member state such as Hungary for their (apparently) similar xenophobic and anti-EU policies. All this is happening when the country’s focus should instead be on remembering the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the infamous fascist anti-Semitic laws which discriminated against Italy’s Jewish community. Instead, racially-motivated abuses are on the rise. Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressed concern on Italy becoming a new “Far West”. This is a further lesson for US politics and society: the far right’s active involvement in democratic institutions does not always lead to its moderation or “normalization.” Even if the League has been in Silvio Berlusconi’s coalitions since the 1990s, this time it is virulently radicalizing the governmental agenda – making it more in line with fellow extremists in the US, Eastern Europe, and Russia. When they do not share the same ideas, Prime Minister Conte and the 5s seem mere puppets in Salvini’s hands. The other vice premier Luigi Di Maio, following a similar line, suggested migrants should be excluded from the proposed basic income.
Despite this abundant evidence, all deny any racism on the part of their government. Hardly surprising if we consider that this is a political elite set on changing the EU legislation with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox is that Orbán is opposing the very refugee redistribution quotas which would help Italy to deal with this humanitarian emergency. The truth is that without “easy targets” such as migrants, Islam, and blacks, the transatlantic far right would have only a few other minor mobilization flags. Immigrants, minorities and/or “foreign” traditions and cultures such as Islam represent the perfect enemies: they are “different” and challenge the “purity” of a given community. As non-white, and at times non-Christian, they cannot belong to any narrowly ethnically or culturally-defined Western society. In this sense, “Mexican” and “Muslim” are an easily interchangeable foe.
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