Racial Shooting in Italy Rekindles Debate on Immigration and Xenophobia
This past Saturday, February 3, a man shot 6 people from a car during a two-hour long attack in the Italian city of Macerata. The 6 were African immigrants (one of whom is now in intensive care). They were targeted along with the office of the center-left Democratic Party headquarters. The suspect is a 28 year old local Italian far-right extremist named Luca Traini. When arrested, Traini draped the Italian flag over his shoulders and reportedly did a fascist salute shouting “Viva l’ Italia”. Racial hatred is considered to be the motive behind the shooting spree. It comes on the wake of the arrest of a Nigerian immigrant in Macerata for the gruesome murder of an Italian teenager a few days before
This tragedy has rekindled the debate on immigration and anti-foreigner sentiment in Italy, which have been key issues in national politics since the intensification of a refugee crisis in the country in 2015, during which hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq crossed the Mediterranean to Europe’s southern border countries, in particular Greece and Italy, adding to existing tensions over an increase in long-standing immigration from Africa.
The arrest of Luca Traini has had a strong political impact, since he ran as a candidate for the far-right, anti immigration party Northern League in municipal elections last year, Italy’s far right party has been accused of fomenting anti-immigrant and racist violence as part of a strategy to attract new voters to its strong nationalist platform ahead of the electoral campaign for the upcoming Italian general elections on 4 March.
Northern League leader Matteo Salvini
Northern League leader Matteo Salvini distanced himself from the attack, but placated the nationalist and racist wing of his party, stating that “unrestrained immigration inevitably causes social conflicts”, while pledging to deport 100,000 migrants during his first year in office. He minimized the fascist alarm of many in Italian media and politics and accused the left-wing party of exploiting the tragedy while not having done anything to prevent it in the six years they have been in power. Forza Italia’s leader Silvio Berlusconi, similarly, claimed that illegal migrants are a “social bomb that risk exploding since they are prone to commit crime”. The two politicians’ statements have drawn criticism for using the migration crisis to instigate violence and feeding rising anti-foreigner sentiment for political purposes.
