by Michael Smith
Rome, Italy, February 22, 2009: An extreme right-wing organisation has taken to the streets of Rome calling for the expulsion from Italy of the entire Romani or Gypsy population of the country.
While there seems to have been little little public support for the Forza Nuova group which is pressing for the end of the Schengen agreement which allows passport – free travel in much of the EU – the situation for the Gypsy population, indigenous and immigrant, in Italy is becoming more and more precarious.
Protest organizer Roberto Fiore said: “This is a situation that requires political will. We want to suspend the Schengen agreement, which is one of the main reasons for the disaster and we want to start all the expulsions of the gypsies and at the same time we think that all the people who have committed crimes in Italy. They should be sent back to their own countries.”
A series of sex attacks in Italy is being blamed on foreigners living in the country and three rapes last weekend triggered a media frenzy and a diplomatic row with Romania.
Italy’s conservative government rushed through a law toughening penalties for sex offenders and permitting neighborhood citizen patrols.
No doubt we can imagine against who those patrols will be used and, having seen the pictures of the camps into which many Gypsies have been moved by the authorities and the special police units guarding them, I do not think we have to ask.
In addition to this Hungary is ablaze with anti-Gypsyism right now with the right-wing also calling, basically, for the expulsion of all Gypsies from that country. And this all in countries that are members of the European Union.
I mean not that it surprises me in the least. I have seen this coming for years now, only no one wanted to believe it. I hate to be the one to say “I told you so”, but such it is. The writing was on the wall but everyone wanted to be blind to it.
As far as we, the Gypsy, are concerned nothing will ever change and all the EU does is talk nice words but that is about it. When it comes down to it the Gypsy will remain their whipping boy and be held responsible for all ills of their society.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
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