A sorrowful Italy was still remembering one of the saddest news of its history. On the 8 of August 1956, now already 53 years ago, a devastating accident broke the hearts of the Italian community living abroad and wrecked the lives of a large number of Italians who had left their country in search of better life conditions. Nonetheless, the unfortunate destiny would make their new lives, their new emotions, their new illusions, their new country, much shorter than they had thought. For them, Belgium was to witness their last sigh of hope; the small town Marcinelle, their last sigh of life.

Today the memory of these workers makes Italy and the whole Europe cry in a rage over one of the most inhuman decisions of an Italian Prime Minister who does not even remember the past of his own people. After more than one year frolicking with democracy, Berlusconi has finally averted his eyes and he has turned his back on every person, Italian or not, who decides to emigrate or is forced to do so. Destroying the last hope of an immigrant community who has been increasingly ill-treated since the very moment in which Il Cavaliere came to power, the Government Berlusconi has won the battle against democracy. From now on, being an immigrant in Italy means to be a criminal, regardless of acts.

After seizing power, Berlusconi and his main allies, the neofascist Lega Nord, have been waging war on Human Rights in one of the most virulent and aggressive ways that a Democracy can witness. From the very beginning, they have spread fear and hatred; from the very beginning, they have tried to prepare their society to accept their foolish decisions, their useless social measures and their outlandish conception of Italy. Their governance has frostily made of Italy a battlefield where reasoning and tolerance find nowhere to be. They have divided their country, they have fought their opponents with a total lack of consideration, they have turned students, intellectuals and the culture itself into a public enemy, they have made of immigrants their main objective. The list does not come to and end and, unfortunately, we are just seeing the beginning of a story whose end is shadier than ever.

Undesirable enemies for the Lega Nord, immigrants mean much more for Silvio Berlusconi. For the Italian Prime Minister, there is too much at stake for letting the economic crisis or the social and environment real problems be a priority. State flights and public money for personal purposes, personal stories of “love” and impoverished relations with an increasing number of countries are some of the stories in which Berlusconi has a special interest. Blotting them out is one of the main obsessions of Il Cavaliere, as it is to quickly enact some “trouble laws” which for the last months have been encouraging people to show him that Italy is not a passive frightened redoubt. However, and unfortunately for him, theory and practice does not walk hand in hand, and achieving such a goal requires sometimes a great effort. Although it comes as a surprise for nobody, over the last year Berlusconi has shown himself to be a real expert in covering up every problem with another problem. That is why, in a moment in which his party, his Government and himself were beginning to run out of resources, they have found in the immigration the perfect joker to distract the Italian population. The immigration has become the Problem, a problem that explains almost every undesirable situation affecting Italy. Once the myth created, the Italian Government just had to let the population bear the syllogism in mind at all times: A) Italy is full of problems; B) the Immigration creates all these problems = Just fight immigrants to make Italian problems disappear.

Nevertheless, the Immigration solution has been used for too long and the increasing national and international criticism is putting the Italian Government in great trouble. As a response to this situation and with the aim of getting journalists and even politicians to be quiet, Berlusconi has launched a legal offensive against all those who oppose his way to understand politics and put them into practice. He has therefore pressed charges against an increasing number of newspapers and his supporters have made of his opponents public enemies who are aggressively discredited. Even the French First Lady, the Italian born Carla Bruni, known for her disagreement with the Italian Government, has been severely attacked in Il Giornale, a Berlusconi family’s newspaper. For this newspaper, Carla Bruni is just the “hottest”, as printed on its pages: “Forse voleva davvero sembrare la più buona del summit. E invece così facendo resta quello che è. Solo la più bona.” (Perhaps she really wanted to seem the righteous in the summit and, instead, with her acts, she’s still what she is. Just the hottest).

Despite the consideration that Berlusconi and his northist allies of the Lega Nord have of the immigration, the Prime Minister has realized that a systematic criminalization of the immigration would immediately give rise to an absolute social and economic chaos. For instance, the badanti, word used in Italian to refer to immigrants who work as old people carers, fill a basic gap of the Italian social system and this law would therefore put Italy in great trouble. For this reason, and after the payment of a tax that will let the Italian State pocket 1,300 million Euros approximately, Berlusconi has decided to regularize these people, with the enraged opposition of his Lega Nord colleagues. Money talks…

Many voices have already been raised against this polemic law, which, according to many jurists has even transgressed the constitutional legality. Furthermore, the Catholic Church has opposed the Italian Government and Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy, has also condemned the decision.

The point of no return is about to be passed… Let’s join José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s and Carla Bruni’s strong voices and let’s cry for freedom! |