Writers protest at Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘fascist’ drift
by Keith Richmond
Some of Italy’s most famous and distinguished writers have signed a letter protesting against Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government’s new anti-immigration laws which, they say, puts the country firmly on a “fascist path”.
The open letter – signed by, among others, Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Tabucchi, Maurizio Scaparro, Gianni Amelio and Dario Fo – condemned the new legislation as the “reintroduction of race laws” and compared the measures with the infamous legislation brought in by Benito Mussolini’s fascist government in 1938 which banned Jews from education and from work.
The letter says: “The Berlusconi government, using security as a pretext, has imposed on our parliament – over which it has total control – the adoption of laws discriminating against immigrants, laws the like of which we had not seen in this country since the passing of the fascist race laws.”
It goes on to say that immigrants could be barred from marrying Italians and registering the birth of their children so they “shall
be for their entire lives the children of unknown parents and may be removed from their own mothers at birth and placed under the care of the state. Not even fascism went that far.”
The legislation – its architect is interior minister Roberto Maroni of the anti-immigration Northern League – allows vigilante-style citizen patrols on the streets in “the fight against illegal immigration”
by Keith Richmond
Some of Italy’s most famous and distinguished writers have signed a letter protesting against Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government’s new anti-immigration laws which, they say, puts the country firmly on a “fascist path”.
The open letter – signed by, among others, Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Tabucchi, Maurizio Scaparro, Gianni Amelio and Dario Fo – condemned the new legislation as the “reintroduction of race laws” and compared the measures with the infamous legislation brought in by Benito Mussolini’s fascist government in 1938 which banned Jews from education and from work.
The letter says: “The Berlusconi government, using security as a pretext, has imposed on our parliament – over which it has total control – the adoption of laws discriminating against immigrants, laws the like of which we had not seen in this country since the passing of the fascist race laws.”
It goes on to say that immigrants could be barred from marrying Italians and registering the birth of their children so they “shall
be for their entire lives the children of unknown parents and may be removed from their own mothers at birth and placed under the care of the state. Not even fascism went that far.”
The legislation – its architect is interior minister Roberto Maroni of the anti-immigration Northern League – allows vigilante-style citizen patrols on the streets in “the fight against illegal immigration”
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