52 replies to this topic

[Maximus]

 

Italy's far-right government announces 'census' and deportations of Roma traveller population

Why exactly do Europeans hate Roma again?

Well if you spend any amount of time in Europe, or pay attention to the domestic news of European countries, they feature a lot in petty crime. Almost everywhere in Europe they have a reputation for pickpocketing, theft, burglary, etc. However, I don't think this is enough to explain why they are especially disliked; after all, many other ethnic groups engage in the same crimes, but don't get the same level of hate.

 

The deeper resentment comes from them being an ethnic group with origins outside of Europe (India), who are living in Europe but in many--the majority--of cases, are refusing to assimilate to the identity of their respective European nation. By this I mean, yeah they might go to work and school like everyone else, but they still retain their own language and especially their own culture. For an American, or Canadian, being from nations founded on immigration, it might be hard to understand why this angers people in Europe. The problem comes from how prominent nationalism and ethnicity feature in the way many European people see themselves, especially those in the more ethnically homogeneous countries. Therefore, while the American says "why does it matter, they should be allowed to celebrate their own culture", the European says "my people have been here for thousands of years, if you want to live here too then adapt to our culture". The Roma of course, refuse to abandon their culture, so they remain perpetual outsiders in their nations. 

 

Of course, these are the "domestic" Roma. Many Eastern European nations have large Roma populations. You also have the ubiquitous anti-immigrant reaction coming in when you look at Roma populations in Southern and Western Europe, as many immigrated from Eastern Europe after their countries joined the EU. 

[bgates276]

I once knew a Romanian. She told me that you had to watch for the gypsies because they caused trouble. Whether true or not, they do have that reputation. 

[Yuli Ban]

Yeah, I've heard that bigotry against gypsies is one of the "last socially acceptable forms of racism" in the Western world. You say 'nigger', you get fired and shamed. You say 'Muslims are evil killers', you get fired and shamed. You say 'Jews deserved the Holocaust', you get fired and shamed. But if you say 'Gypsies are the most worthless race of all', you could be celebrated, even by supposedly socially liberal people. It always baffled me how easy it was to display hatred of the Roma and not suffer consequences for it. 

 

If Italy were setting up a special census for African or Arab migrants, you could be assured that this news would be at the top of the web. Same thing if they were saying that Jews, Slavs, LGBT+, or other historically repressed peoples have to register. But it's "just" the Romani, so it barely gets a blip.

[bgates276]

I think it might have something to do with the agenda of the powers that be. I can't tell you exactly why it is socially acceptable to criticize the Roma, but it would seem that no one really defends Native Americans either. Instead, blacks are the pet project of the elites. To defend the rights of natives, may be seen positively from the perspective of being Anti-American, but in the end, any kind of nationalism still goes against the goals of the globalists.

 

This is kind of out there, but Roma have been in Europe for quite a long time too, have they not? Perhaps, due to this fact, the internationalists have no use for the Roma, because in a way, they are almost seen as indigenous to Europe too, and therefore there is no reason to want to protect them. I mean, I think of gypsies as being a part of, although unique, element of traditional European history and culture. For example, the whole concept of crystal balls and fortune tellling has been part of the mainstream for ages.  Anyways, gypsies are certainly down there on the victimhood hierarchy.

[Sciencerocks]

Italy's deputy PM Salvini called for 'mass cleansing, street by street, quarter by quarter', newly r
 

Italy's deputy PM Salvini called for 'mass cleansing, street by street, quarter by quarter', newly resurfaced footage reveals

Footage has re-emerged of Italy’s new interior minister calling for a “mass cleansing” of migrants from “entire parts” of the country.

Matteo Salvini’s comments are being shared on social media after he announced a “census” of the country’s Roma community, setting the stage for deportations of the ethnic group.

“We need a mass cleansing, street by street, piazza by piazza, neighbourhood by neighbourhood,” Mr Salvini, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, said in an interview last year. “We need to be tough because there are entire parts of our cities, entire parts of Italy, that are out of control.”

During the same interview, the 45-year-old suggested Italy could adopt policies on immigration similar to those of Donald Trump in the US.

 

https://www.independ...y-a8409506.html

 

Fascism is on the raise. World war  is coming

[BasilBerylium]

Cold War II?

[caltrek]

Mafia Making Massive Profit on Migrant Crisis

 

https://www.salon.co...nd-flourishing/

 

Introduction:

 

(Salon) In the spring of 2015, I flew to Sicily to report a story about the European migration crisis. Then, as now, hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East were crowding into small fishing boats and flimsy rubber dinghies in Libya, Egypt and Turkey and setting out across the Mediterranean for Europe. In 15 years, 22,000 had drowned en route. But if the humanitarian crisis was well known and comprehensively reported, I had been tipped off that a central explanation for this catastrophe had received less attention. Anti-mafia prosecutors in Palermo were claiming to have evidence suggesting that one answer to why so many refugees and migrants were heading to Sicily was because the Italian Mafia wanted them to.

 

In Sicily, I interviewed the prosecutors and reviewed their evidence, and talked to Carabinieri, anti-mafia activists, refugees and social workers. Where the world had seen an unprecedented emergency, Italy’s gangsters had perceived an unrivaled opportunity. North African and Middle Eastern gangs handled the trafficking across the Mediterranean. But once the migrants arrived, mafiosi were making millions from them, sometimes putting them to work on farms for as little as €3 a day, sometimes taking a cut from Nigerian prostitution rackets, but mainly by infiltrating and corrupting Italy’s immigration system. The mafia’s men inside these authorities ensured that mafia businesses were awarded contracts for the construction and management of refugee reception centers. Each migrant earned the mafia €28 per head per day. A three-year contract to run Europe’s biggest migrant center at Mineo in eastern Sicily was worth €97 million. A Carabinieri surveillance team in Rome recorded one mobster, convicted murderer Salvatore Buzzi, boasting in a phone call to an associate: "Do you have any idea how much I make from immigrants? Even drugs aren’t as profitable!"

 

The story was a startling correction to the idea of the Italian Mafia as historic. It also repudiated any notions of mafia glamor. Here was a vast present-day criminal conspiracy making tens of millions from the excruciating suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and 3,000 to 4,000 deaths every year. This was not the stylish menace of "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas" or even Elena Ferrante. This was sordid, venal and deadly.

[wjfox]

Italy bridge: Genoa motorway collapse kills at least 22

 

A motorway bridge has collapsed near the northwestern Italian city of Genoa, sending vehicles plummeting up to 90m (295ft) to the ground and killing at least 22 people, Italian officials say.

Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said it was likely to be "an immense tragedy".

There are fears that many more may have been killed or injured.

Video footage appears to show one of the towers holding up the suspension bridge collapsing in stormy weather.

The police linked the disaster to what they called a violent cloudburst.

 

https://www.bbc.co.u...europe-45183624

 

 

 

 

[wjfox]

35 now confirmed dead.

[caltrek]

Rescue Ship Accuses Italy of Forcing It Out of Service

 

https://www.courthou...out-of-service/

 

Introduction:

 

CASTELBUONO, Sicily (Courthouse News) — A humanitarian rescue group that has been in a public fight with Italy’s new anti-immigrant government over its work rescuing asylum-seekers in the Mediterranean says the Italian government has pressured Panama to cancel its ship’s registration.

 

It’s the latest fight between humanitarian groups working in the Mediterranean and Italy, a nation that has become increasingly aggressive in stopping asylum-seekers from reaching its shores.

 

Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini accuses the rescue crews of encouraging asylum-seekers to cross the Mediterranean by giving people hope they will be rescued and taken to Europe. He also repeatedly alleges the nongovernmental groups are helping human smugglers.

 

SOS Mediterranée, a Paris-based organization that operates the Aquarius search and rescue ship, said it was told by Panamanian officials on Saturday that it would no longer be able to fly the Panamanian flag. A ship cannot legally sail without registration somewhere. The Aquarius had recently lost its registration in Gibraltar.

 

The Aquarius is the only nongovernmental rescue ship left in the Mediterranean.

[caltrek]

Italy to Test EU With Anti-Austerity Budget

 

https://www.courthou...sterity-budget/

 

 

CASTELBUONO, Sicily (Courthouse News) — Italy’s maverick government is at it again: After challenging the European Union this summer over refugee policies, it’s opening a new fight over public spending limits.

 

Late Thursday, the Italian government, though saddled with heavy public debt, announced a 2019 budget that includes tax cuts, undoing pension reforms and a basic income for the poor and unemployed.

 

In other words: a bloated budget that goes against the austerity measures imposed by the EU on member states after the 2008 financial crisis.

 

Italy’s government is made up of a coalition between the League, a right-wing pro-business party founded in Northern Italy that opposes immigration and favors tax cuts, and the 5-Star Movement, a grassroots party that’s made basic income a cornerstone of its left-leaning, maverick policy platform.

 

The new budget sets the deficit at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. The higher deficit allows the government to fund its popular campaign promises, but also threatens to provoke a clash between Italy and the European Commission, which approves national budgets.

[Alislaws]

 

Italy to Test EU With Anti-Austerity Budget

 

https://www.courthou...sterity-budget/

 

 

CASTELBUONO, Sicily (Courthouse News) — Italy’s maverick government is at it again: After challenging the European Union this summer over refugee policies, it’s opening a new fight over public spending limits.

 

Late Thursday, the Italian government, though saddled with heavy public debt, announced a 2019 budget that includes tax cuts, undoing pension reforms and a basic income for the poor and unemployed.

 

In other words: a bloated budget that goes against the austerity measures imposed by the EU on member states after the 2008 financial crisis.

 

Italy’s government is made up of a coalition between the League, a right-wing pro-business party founded in Northern Italy that opposes immigration and favors tax cuts, and the 5-Star Movement, a grassroots party that’s made basic income a cornerstone of its left-leaning, maverick policy platform.

 

The new budget sets the deficit at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. The higher deficit allows the government to fund its popular campaign promises, but also threatens to provoke a clash between Italy and the European Commission, which approves national budgets.

 

Why would anyone lend money to a Govt running a "Tax Less Spend More!" platform, from a position of already very high debt?

 

I mean. someone will lend them the money, but as a general principle we should try to stop allowing people to take/make loans where there is no way they will be paid back. 

[caltrek]

 

 

Why would anyone lend money to a Govt running a "Tax Less Spend More!" platform, from a position of already very high debt?

 

From the cited article:

 

 

 

EU rules put a 3 percent ceiling on annual deficits, so the new budget proposal is under that limit

[caltrek]

Bioliquid Rules in Italy Approved by Top EU Court

 

https://www.courthou...y-top-eu-court/

 

Introduction:

 

(Courthouse News) – The European Court of Justice signed off Thursday on the certification scheme by which Italy regulates companies that use bioliquids for thermal energy plants.

 

Though a copy of the ruling out of Luxembourg is not available in English, a press release states that that the dispute arose after Italy withdrew public funding from the company Legatoria Editoriale Giovanni Olivotto.

 

L.E.G.O., as the company’s name is abbreviated in the court record, uses the bioliquid palm oil to fuel a thermal energy plant that runs its printing office.

 

From 2012 to 2014, L.E.G.O received public funding because its plant was recognized as being fueled by renewable energy sources.

 

Italy cut that aid off, however, after the intermediary company responsible for the buying the oil on L.E.G.O.’s behalf failed to submit sustainability certificates.

[caltrek]

Europe's self-destructive war on Italy

 

https://theweek.com/...ctive-war-italy

 

Introduction:

 

(The Week) Italy and the European Union are headed for a throwdown. Italy's new government wants to help its citizens following years of grinding economic immiseration. And the EU is hellbent on stopping them, all in the name of neoliberal budget discipline.

 

It's an astonishing spectacle, one that exposes the bottomless stupidity and self-destructive high-handedness of EU leadership.

 

Italy was hit hard by the global economic collapse of 2008 and the ensuing eurozone crisis. Italy's unemployment rate peaked at 13 percent, and after years of suffering under EU-imposed austerity measures, Italy's unemployment is still hovering around 10 percent. Not surprisingly, Italians finally got fed up with this state of affairs; in June, they revolted by electing an oddball coalition of left-wing and right-wing populists to run their government.

 

That new government promptly proposed an ambitious national budget, including a guaranteed minimum income, cancellation of planned cuts to Italy's public pension system, a bevy of tax cuts, and more. Needless to say, this massive spending package, along with reductions in tax revenue, would require bigger deficits. Italy projects a gap between spending and tax revenues of 2.4 percent of GDP in 2019.

 

Why do this? Quite simply, the Italian government wants to cut poverty and offer its citizens some help as their economy continues to trudge along. But it's also sound macroeconomic policy: With unemployment at 10 percent and GDP falling — from almost $2.4 trillion in 2008 to $1.9 trillion today — Italy is clearly suffering from a big shortfall in aggregate demand. The way to fix that is for the government to spend more than it taxes; specifically, to spend on programs that get money into the hands of consumers. Italians would subsequently spend that extra money, which in turn would create more jobs.

[Sciencerocks]

Judge in Italy orders trial for Berlusconi in escort case
Source: Associated Press

Updated 8:38 pm CST, Friday, November 16, 2018

ROME (AP) — A judge in southern Italy has ordered that former three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi go on trial over a case involving women procured for his summer villas.

Prosecutors have alleged that Berlusconi gave a businessman hundreds of thousands of euros to induce him to lie about engaging young women for the politician's villas a decade ago.

Lawyers for Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul, weren't immediately available for comment. Italian news agency ANSA quoted them as saying they'd prove his innocence.

. . .

Berlusconi, 82, leads the center-right Forza Italia party he founded, but is currently barred from public office due to a tax fraud conviction.

 

 

Read more: https://www.chron.co...in-13398997.php

[caltrek]

Italian Anti-Immigrant Law Draws Harsh Criticism

 

https://www.courthou...arsh-criticism/

 

Introduction:

 

(Courthouse News) (CN) – Life is likely to get a lot more uncertain and rough for thousands of immigrants and asylum-seekers in Italy after the government this week passed a law that critics say will drive many foreigners underground. But the law also faces an uncertain legal future.

 

There are doubts whether key parts of the law will be able to survive scrutiny by the constitutional court. But any ruling striking down portions of the law would likely not take place for months, a legal expert said.

 

Late Wednesday, Italy’s lower house of parliament, the House of Deputies, overwhelmingly voted in favor of the anti-immigrant law, commonly referred to as the “Salvini Decree,” named for far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The final vote was 396-99.

 

The new law turns on its head Italy’s generous and extensive system of asylum for people fleeing poverty, war and hardship. For years Italy has seen hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from Africa and Asia reach its shores on dinghies, rafts and boats launched from North Africa. Tens of thousands of asylum-seekers have died attempting crossings of the Mediterranean Sea too.

 

But the new law scraps asylum protection on humanitarian grounds. Italy is one of a few European countries that granted asylum for humanitarian reasons. Such protection could extend, for example, to a homosexual person fleeing a country where homosexuality is illegal.

A refugee family sits on a bus upon their arrival in Pratica di Mare’s military airport near Rome, Italy, on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018.

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

[caltrek]

European Authorities Launch Crackdown on Italian Mob

 

https://www.courthou...on-italian-mob/

 

Entire Article:

 

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands launched coordinated raids Wednesday in a crackdown on the Italian mafia.

 

The raids were the culmination of an investigation codenamed Pollino that was launched in 2016 against the ‘ndrangheta criminal group on allegations of cocaine trafficking, money laundering, bribery and violence, said Eurojust, the European agency that fights cross-border organized crime, which coordinated the operation.

 

In Germany, federal police said there had been multiple arrests in the early morning raids on premises linked to the southern Italy-based organized crime group. The focus was on the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands and Belgium, and Bavaria to the south.

 

Further details were not immediately available but Eurojust scheduled a news conference for later in the day in The Hague.

Masked police stand in an ice parlor in Duisburg, western Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 as authorities conduct coordinated raids in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands in a crackdown on the Italian mafia.

(Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

[Sciencerocks]

In Blow to Political Correctness, Italy Wants Crucifixes and Nativity Scenes in All Classrooms

ITALY, December 3, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Amid what Italian media is describing as “open war” on school nativity scenes, Italy’s Education Ministry has slapped back, granting approval to installing crucifixes and reinstating nativity scenes in the nation’s classrooms.

“The crucifix is for me the symbol of our history, our culture, our traditions,” said Education Minister Marco Bussetti, speaking to the Federation of Catholic Schools’ annual congress in Rome. “I don't see how it can cause any irritation in our school rooms, on the contrary it may help kids to reflect on our history.”

Bussetti is not alone.

When a school in the city of Terni, northeast of Rome, cancelled its traditional nativity play in order to respect children from other cultures, Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini slammed the measure as “IDIOCY,” according to a Voice of Europe report.

"It is not just about religion,” said Salvini on Facebook, “but about history, roots, culture. I will not give up.”

“Long live our traditions, and may they spread!” he added.

A representative of the populist Lega Party, Valeria Alessandrini, first brought the situation at the school in Terni to the attention of Italians, saying:

Only by respecting (our own traditions) … can we make others understand everyone is free to practice their own faiths but that it is also required they respect the history and culture of the country in which they live.

I hope that children and young people at the school will be allowed to share with their peers and their parents the most beautiful, intense and meaningful moments of Christmas.

 

https://www.lifesite...nativity-scenes

[Sciencerocks]

Italy far-right minister accuses EU of anti-Israel bias
Date created : 11/12/2018 - 21:26
https://www.france24...nti-israel-bias

Italy?s far-right Interior Minister and deputy PM Matteo Salvini speaks at a press conference with Israel's public security minister at a hotel in Jerusalem on December 11, 2018 Italy?s far-right Interior Minister and deputy PM Matteo Salvini speaks at a press conference with Israel's public security minister at a hotel in Jerusalem on December 11, 2018 AFP

Jerusalem (AFP)

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini accused the European Union of being biased against Israel, in remarks during a visit to the Jewish state on Tuesday.

"The European Union in recent years has been absolutely unbalanced... in its management of the conflict in the Middle East, condemning and punishing Israel every 15 minutes," he told journalists.

Salvini met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday during his 24-hour visit to the country.

He referred to Israel as "a safe haven for European and Western values in the region", while adding that "whoever wants peace supports Israel".

Asked why he did not have any plans to meet Palestinian leaders, the Italian minister said he would do so on his next visit as his schedule was full this time.