Italy: Opposition alliance shift to right
01 March 2000
Alliances formed by Polo della Liberta (PdL) with the Lega Nord (LN) in the north and Pino Rauti's Fiamma Tricolore (FT) in the south, led to it winning 50.7% of the vote in the Italian regional elections in April. PdL leader Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi's Lega Nord presented a draft law on immigration proposing tough measures against immigrants, including the use of Italian navy boats to search the Adriatic sea for illegal immigrants and permission to shoot at people smuggling refugees at sea. LN President Stefano Stefani said: "Look, the signal that must go out is that tolerance is finished. For me, shooting at an individual who blatantly breaks the law is something right..." Berlusconi and Bossi sought to justify the initiative from a christian and "cultural" perspective, but Caritas, the main Catholic charity organisation working in the field, called the initiative "blasphemous". Fini also stated that the PdL would be working to repeal Article 193 of the constitution, which legalises abortion, following the breakdown of talks with the Radicals.
After Berlusconi visited Israel in March to reassure the Jewish authorities that the PdL did not represent a fascist, undemocratic or racist force, his return to Italy has been marked by alliances with fascists (FT), racists (LN) and anti-Semites. In Chieti, the PdL supported mayor, Nicola Cucullo, is a self-confessed fascist who believes "Jews should be fried". He recently commented that: "Fascism is the regime that faced all the problems in our society and solved them all. It could not have done more in 20 years. Apart from a couple of wars."
Il Messaggero 25.1.00; La Repubblica 27.1.00; Avvenimenti 26.3.00, 16.4.00.