The political situation/catastrophe of contemporary Italian politics is apparently well on its way to becoming an ongoing series of coverage here at Paulitics.
Earlier in the week, I reported that Rome’s new (self-proclaimed) neo-fascist mayor Gianni Alemanno was proudly greeted with straight-arm fascist salutes and cries of “Duce! Duce!” (the Italian equivalent of the German “Führer”).
If that wasn’t enough to make you say “Oh shit…”, how about this one: Rome’s new fascist mayor makes his first policy pledge:
Rome’s new mayor promises purge of migrants:
“Gianni Alemanno, 50, a firebrand neo-fascist and the first Right-wing mayor of the city since the Second World War, vowed to make Rome ‘secure’ as he was sworn into office after his election at the weekend.
[…]
In a sign of things to come, after Mr Alemanno’s election Mr Berlusconi declared: ‘We are the new Falange.’
The original Falange (or Phalanx) was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the 1930s, whose doctrine was adopted by General Franco.
[…]
The new mayor said that his first action would be to begin “immediate expulsions” of the 20,000 immigrants in the city with criminal records.
[…]
Mr Alemanno was the youth leader of the fascist Italian Social Movement and wears a Celtic cross, a symbol of the extreme Right. However, he said he wore the cross only as a religious symbol, and in tribute to Paolo di Nella, a far-Right activist who was stoned to death in a Rome street protest 25 years ago.
Mr Alemanno said he was sick of the ‘continuing search for [my] dark side’, adding: ‘I am bitterly upset from a personal point of view at this demonisation.’
[…]
Graziano Halilovic, a spokesman for one of Rome’s biggest settlements of Roma gipsies, said: ‘We fear there will be night-time raids on the camps. We want a safe city too. Some of our members have heard their parents’ stories of fascism.’
Mr Bossi said on Wednesday that immigrants had to be hunted out, and that if reforms were not forthcoming, his followers would take up arms.
“We have no fear of taking things to the piazzas. We have 300,000 martyrs ready to come down from the mountains. Our rifles are always smoking,” he said.
Mr Alemanno has promised to tear down a £12 million museum around the Ara Pacis, an altar to the Emperor Augustus.”
Paulitics 
shit
There’s an old saying I’m struggling to remember that jumps to mind as I read the above bit. It goes something like this… “The greatest threat to our freedom is our own fear.” Now read the above again and remember the US for about two years after the 9/11 attacks. See what happened to them? And before we get too smug, take a long hard look at our own government. Such bills as the proposed immigration law and the law and order bill are fine examples of reaction to our fear. Or rather a government that’s attempting to play on that fear. We live in interesting times folks.
Bad times in Italy, the only continental European country without a Socialist or really leftist party in the Parliament, but mafia-men, Fascists, anti-immigrants and … Berlusconi.
Paul, I have been reading your blogs for the past couple months, and I have to say, this is enough to make me comment for the first time. I can’t even begin to describe how foreboding this Gianni Alemanno seems. Rising fascist groups in Russia, and now this…
I think I will blog about this on my own blog, http://revdevochka.blogspot.com/.
Glad you’re back and blogging, by the way.
This is downright scary. Thanks for posting about it though.
Something related to this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/italian-tolerance-goes-up-in-smoke-as-gypsy-camp-is-burnt-to-ground-829318.html
Gypsy camps under fire, now. It’s happening there. Thought you would need to see this.
In Italy they talk of the “gypsy problem”… just like 70 years ago!!!
That’s some scary poop over there.
Some news:
– soldiers in the cities “against the crime” (not against Mafia-men, who sit even in the Parliament, but against small criminals);
– a law to stop the trials of Berlusconi;
– a law to forbid to journalists to give the people news about trials until a trial ends (in Italy a trial in average goes on for about 12 years).
Force, impunity, censorship.