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Italy: Anti-Semitism on the increase

01 January 1991

Italy: Anti-Semitism on the increase
artdoc March=1993

To mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and to protest against
rising anti-Semitism, 30,000 people have marched in Rome and 31
towns and cities across Italy. Previously, in October, 45,000
people took part in a march on Rome organised by the neo fascist
MSI. A counter-demonstration was banned.
A survey published in L'Espresso magazine has found that 10.5
per cent of respondents thought that Jews should leave Italy and
9.5 percent believed the Holocaust was an invention. Slightly
more than a third of respondents said that Italy's 35000 Jews
were not Italians at all; 41.8 per cent said that Jews should no
longer dwell on the Holocaust and 56.3 per cent said Jews had a
`special relationship with money'. However, the pollsters who
carried out the survey have accused the press of misinterpreting
their findings.
The day after the poll was published, over two dozen mainly
Jewish shops were daubed with racist graffiti. Following this,
Jewish youths ransacked the Rome headquarters of a neo-fascist
organisation, the Western Political Movement - a member of which
has been charged with carrying out the earlier daubings on the
shops. (International Herald Tribune 7-8.11.92; Independent
2.11.92; II Manifesto 18. 1 0; 5.11.92).

Poll reveals support for Northern League

A poll taken in 10 cities, published in the weekly Panorama,
shows that the separatist Northern League would be the biggest
party in each case, with an average 27 per cent of the vote, if
elections were held now. Projected on to a national scale, the
result would make the League the second biggest party with 15 per
cent of the vote. (Independent 6.10.92)

IRR European Race Audit no 1 1992
Contact: Liz Fekete Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke
Street, London WC1X 9HS. Tel: ++ 071 837 0041