Anti - Immigrant Bill Touches Off a Furious Debate in Italy
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Campaign Move
Draws Comparison
To Le Pen, Haider
By Yaroslav Trofimov
03/31/2000
The Wall Street Journal
Page A12
(Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
ROME -- Yet another European nation is being roiled by debate over the treatment of immigrants.
Silvio Berlusconi's center-right bloc focused its election campaign on a harsh anti-immigration bill, prompting political foes to accuse Italy's former prime minister and opposition leader of embracing the extremist views of politicians such as Joerg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France.
The bill, unveiled by Mr. Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League movement, would tighten naturalization requirements, denying a "lumpen proletariat mass" of foreign-born voters to the Left. The bill would set stiff immigration quotas, revoke existing immigration-related agreements with developing nations and allow the Italian coast guard to fire at the boats smuggling in foreigners. At the same time, the bill would grant tax breaks for missionary and humanitarian activity in poor countries.
The proposal "is gratuitously ferocious in its absolute inapplicability," appealing to "egoism and isolationism," Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema said. Mr. Berlusconi's plan comes as Europe's difficulties in integrating millions of immigrants are feeding xenophobic movements such as Mr. Haider's Freedom Party, which belongs to Austria's government, and groups in Switzerland, France and Belgium.
Bucking the trend, Mr. D'Alema's center-left government has implemented one of Europe's most liberal immigration laws and last year granted amnesty to 134,000 illegal aliens.
Mr. Berlusconi's opposition Polo alliance has long criticized this approach, blaming immigrants for Italy's rising crime rate. This resonates with some voters, befuddled by the arrival of North African, Albanian and Asian newcomers in a traditionally monoethnic country that, until a generation ago, was itself sending millions of emigrants to Northern Europe and the Americas.
Mr. D'Alema's center-left bloc is facing the Polo alliance in regional and local elections April 16, with opinion polls predicting a strong showing by the opposition. A victory in the regional elections
would seriously bolster Mr. Berlusconi's chances of returning to power in the national elections scheduled for next year.
"We're facing a cultural paranoia, with people convinced that there's an invasion by blacks and Arabs under way," said Lucio Caracciolo, editor in chief of the Limes geopolitical review in Rome.
This impression is remote from reality as Italy, with an estimated two million immigrants, actually has one of Western Europe's most homogenous populations, he said. Several leading economists, including Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio, recently have urged Italy to bring in more immigrants as a way to rejuvenate the nation's aging population and fund the deficit-ridden pension system.
Mr. Berlusconi has repeatedly said he rejects racist and xenophobic views, dismissing Mr. D'Alema's criticism as electioneering. "This is an extremely civil and human law," the former prime minister said. "I invite everyone to read it."
An introduction to Mr. Berlusconi's bill is rather explicit in outlining its ideology. The text begins by rejecting a model of "universal multiracial society that is standardized by the markets," in which the
state rather than the ethnicity claims primary allegiance. Instead, the Polo alliance is opting for a "Christian" model based on the "primacy of the nation understood in the romantic sense, as a nucleus and base of the values, religion, culture, language, dress and tradition," defending a "bulwark of European civilization."
This world view, Mr. Caracciolo of Limes said, is very similar to Mr. Haider's positions. "Such romantic nationalism has created a lot of havoc in Europe over the last century and can bring potentially disastrous consequences," he warned.
Mr. Le Pen, head of the National Front party in France, welcomed the Berlusconi proposals, according to one report.
Mr. Berlusconi has been careful to disassociate himself from xenophobic statements until now. After a recent trip to Jerusalem, he even changed his neutral stand on Mr. Haider, saying he would back European sanctions against Austria.
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Booted Out
Fate of Italy's illegal immigrants
Deported
1999 69,895
1998 54,135
Ordered to leave national territory
1999 38,361
1998 44,121
Applying for 1999 amnesty
250,530
Granted amnesty
134,460
Source: Interior Ministry