Backwards Italy

I like Italy, it was the first foreign country I travelled to when I was 14, which has given me an enduring love of the food. But whilst the British media has been focused on Berlusconi banging call-girls, his government has been carrying out some hideous measures.

According to the Sunday Times magazine, a 'security package' has been introduced bit by bit in the last 12 months, with illegal immigration now a crime punishable by a 10,000 euro fine, although how they are going to pay that is beyond me. Children of illegal immigrants are also banned from attending school, or receving health care, and those who knowingly harbour illegal immigrants face up to three years in prison. All sounds sadly familiar to those with a knowledge of modern European history. A measure has also been introduced ordering the compulsory fingerprinting of the entire 150,000 Roma gypsy community, some whom the Times points out, have lived in Italy since the middle ages. However, due to pressure, the government has 'humanely' excluded children from this measure.

Berlusconi swept to power in 2008 on the wave of anti-immigration hysteria, which his media helped to stoke, reportedly suggesting that "all Romanians harbour criminal intent". His successful dehumanisation of gypsies has already had an effect, with two bodies of two young Roma sisters who had drowned being left on a beach for hours whilst bathers carried on their ordinary routine.

This so-called man makes a mockery of modern European history, and thus makes a mockery of the European Union as a whole with disgusting laws such as this. The Vatican to its credit has called the laws 'a reason for sadness' and a 'great concern'. The rest of Europe should show its great concern more forcefully. Much blood was shed to free Italy from fascism, Berlusconi should never be allowed to forget that.