Racist attacks against Roma people and African migrants

Two days ago in Turin a teenage girl whose parents subjected to regular gynecological tests to check she was still a virgin, claimed she’d been raped by two Roma men from the campsite nearby her home. A few hours later, a protest organised by some locals against the alleged rape degenerated into a proper pogrom, with the Roma campsite set on fire. Nobody was hurt because many of the camp residents managed to run away before the fire, but most of the caravans were burned. Shocked by the events, the girl eventually confessed she’d made up the rape because she was afraid to tell her parents she’d lost her virginity. The newspaper La Stampa, after inciting people to take action against the Roma, published an apology “to ourselves and our readers”, without any mention of the Roma people who’ve lost their homes.

Today, a 50-year-old close to the extreme right-wing group Casapound shot dead 2 African street vendors and injured another 3 in central Florence. He then shot himself in a car park before the police could find him. Casapound‘s official statement included: “Today we have witnessed a tragedy caused by madness, and people have died without any reason; but we’d like to remind people that this has happened partly because this State isn’t able to protect and assist its weaker children”. Madness is the card the far right plays every time someone fucks up badly and exposes their ideology for what it really is: Gianluca Casseri this time, Anders Behring Breivik in Norway a few months ago, and so on. They’re not hate-driven people who’re consciously killing people in the name of an ideology, they’re just crazy fuckers…

I’ve had in mind to link this article on my blog for a long while, now it seems to be the right time: the excellent “Casapound and the new radical right in Italy” by the Moyote Project.

Written by Italy Calling