always win'
Pietro Giovannoni, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League
party, sparks outrage with remarks about annual run
Tom Kington in Rome
Monday December 6 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/padua-councillor-marathon-funds
An Italian councillor has sparked outrage by demanding that funding
for a local marathon be scrapped because Africans always win it.
Speaking during a session of the Padua provincial assembly, Pietro
Giovannoni ? a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party ?
said: "Let's stop using public money to finance the marathon, since
the winners are always Africans and foreigners in underpants."
Kenyan runners have won seven of the 11 marathons held locally, with
Italians winning just two. The next race is scheduled for April 2011.
Giovannoni's comments were part of an upsurge of anti-immigrant and
anti-gypsy sentiment in Padua, near Venice.
Earlier, rightwing city councillor Vittorio Aliprandi wrote on his
Facebook page that the local Gypsies "make me vomit" and deserve "a
kicking".
Last month, a train conductor was given a four-month prison sentence
after he ejected two Nigerians from a train at Padua station, telling
them: "You blacks cannot get on board."
Ivo Rossi, the deputy mayor of Padua, condemned the outbursts, warning
that "this crescendo of idiocy is provoking an incalculable damage to
the image of the Veneto region".
Paolo Giacon, a local centre-left politician, warned that the episodes
were a warm-up for a possible electoral campaign as Silvio
Berlusconi's weakened government heads for a crucial confidence vote
on 14 December.
"On the centre-right there is a hateful and shameful competition
underway to see who can be the most insultingly racist, possibly in
the run up to an electoral campaign based on hate and fear of
diversity," Giacon said.
In a speech yesterday, Berlusconi claimed leftwing politicians in
Italy "want to throw open the borders to let foreigners in, to give
them the vote and change this country's moderate majority".
With unemployment mounting, tensions are also rising among immigrants
who, under Italian law, risk losing their residency permits and being
expelled from Italy should they lose their jobs.
Immigrants from countries including Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan staged
a 16-day protest on top of a crane in Brescia last month, demanding
residency permits and drawing crowds of sympathisers who clashed with
police.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment