the growing strength of fascism continues in Italy unfortunately.
[span style="text-decoration: underline;"]
[a href="vny!://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE49O1LR20081025"]vny!://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE49O1LR20081025[/a]
[/span]In an alliance with two right wing parties, the 72-year media tycoon Berlusconi has a strong majority in parliament.[/p][span id="midArticle_7"][/span] Among his earliest policies have been the dismantling of gypsy shanty towns, putting soldiers on city streets and guaranteeing immunity from prosecution for himself and a handful of other top officials.
----
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has won parliamentary backing for a crime package critics say discriminates against immigrants
Under new laws approved by the Senate, illegal immigrants convicted of crimes will now face jail sentences a third longer than those for Italians. [/p]Courts will be able to jail illegal immigrants for up to four years rather than simply deport them. [/p]Property rented to illegal immigrants can also be confiscated. [!-- E SF --][/p]Both the Catholic Church and Italy's left-wing opposition say that, as well as targeting immigrants unfairly, the new laws may also encourage racism. [/p]
[a href="vny!://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7522612.stm"]vny!://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7522612.stm[/a]
-----------------------------------
[h1 id="heading-alone" class="article-no-standfirst"]Italy: Berlusconi puts troops on Italian city streets[/h1]Hundreds of soldiers have been patrolling the streets of Italian cities in a crackdown on street crime and illegal immigration.The deployment was among measures introduced by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government to fulfil an electoral pledge to uphold law and order.[/p]In Rome, some 400 troops were deployed at underground and overland rail stations and at a centre housing immigrants.[/p]The soldiers are not expected to patrol the tourist areas of the capital, but will help guard areas that may be vulnerable to a terrorist attack, such as embassies and the Vatican. [/p]In Milan, around 150 soldiers were stationed at the cathedral, the synagogue, train stations and consulates. [/p]Soldiers were also deployed in Naples, Bologna and Palermo, while further troops were stationed at immigration centres to prevent escapes.[/p]The defence ministry announced the further deployment of soldiers over coming days, reaching a total of 3,000. [/p]In the most controversial part of the exercise, about 1,000 troops will be sent on patrol alongside the police in large Italian cities such as Rome, Milan, Naples and Turin. The move has prompted critics to warn of the militarisation of the cities.[/p]The deployment of soldiers is intended to free up the Carabinieri for other duties. [/p]The government has repeatedly linked rising crime rates to illegal immigration, which last month prompted Berlusconi and his ministers to declare a national state of emergency.[/p]The deployment of the military is the latest high-profile element in a campaign that already includes the fingerprinting those of who live in camps on the outskirts of Italy's big cities. The vast majority of such people are Roma.
[/p][a href="vny!://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/04/italy"]vny!://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/04/italy[/a]
-------------------------------------------------------------
[h1]Neo-fascist sweeps in as Rome's mayor[/h1]
A former street-fighting neo-fascist won a crushing victory in Rome's mayoral election last night, crowning the victory two weeks ago of Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right in the general election, and fuelling fears that Italy is now set for an unprecedented assault on immigrants. [/p] [!--proximic_content_off--] [!--proximic_content_on--] The Eternal City's new mayor is Gianni Alemanno, the 50-year-old son of an army officer, who still wears the Celtic cross belonging to a rightist friend killed with a spanner blow to the skull during a demonstration. He has mellowed since his wild youth: as agriculture minister in Berlusconi's last government, his passion for organic food would have done credit to a Green. [/p] But getting tough on immigration is a key promise. In his 16-point "Pact for Rome", point number seven reads: "Immediately activate procedure for the expulsion of 20,000 nomads and immigrants who have broken the law in Rome." [/p] Point eight follows: "Closure of illegal nomad camps, rigorous and effective checks on legal ones and their progressive elimination." [/p] Mr Alemanno's election, with a margin of nearly 7 per cent over the former centre-left mayor Francesco Rutelli, confirms that the xenophobic wave which swept the Northern League to historic highs in this month's general election has now reached Rome.
[/p][a href="vny!://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/neofascist-sweeps-in-as-romes-mayor-817128.html"]vny!://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/neofascist-sweeps-in-as-romes-mayor-817128.html[/a]
---------------------------------------
[h1 id="heading-alone" class="article-no-standfirst"]Cries of 'Duce! Duce!' salute Rome's new mayor[/h1]
Italy's new parliament met for the first time yesterday with applause for Rome's mayor-elect, Gianni Alemanno, a day after followers celebrated his triumph with straight-arm salutes and fascist-era chants.[/p]Alemanno, a former neo-fascist youth leader, took 54% of the vote in a run-off on Sunday and Monday, crushing his rival, Francesco Rutelli, a deputy prime minister in the last, centre-left government.[/p]Silvio Berlusconi, who won a general election earlier this month, welcomed the latest evidence of Italy's leap to the right by declaring: "We are the new Falange." Although he took care to wrap his remark in a classical context, his choice of words appeared to be a nod and a wink to his most extreme supporters.
[/p]The original Falange - the word means "phalanx" - was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the 1930s, which supplied Francisco Franco's dictatorship with its ideological underpinning.[/p]The prime minister-elect's closest ally, Umberto Bossi, the Northern League leader, kept up the intimidating rhetoric, arriving for the first session of Italy's parliament warning of violence if the centre-left did not go along with his plans for federalism.[/p]"I don't know what the left wants [but] we are ready," he told reporters. "If they want conflicts, I have 300,000 men always on hand." [/p]On Monday night, the area around Rome's city hall rang to chants of "Duce! Duce!", the term adopted by Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, equivalent to the German "Führer". Supporters of the new mayor gave the fascist Roman straight-arm salutes.[/p][a href="vny!://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/italy"]vny!://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/italy[/a]
