Immigrant issue key in Italy's elections

A crackdown on crime and tighter immigration controls have emerged as key issues in runoff elections this weekend after two women were recently raped in Milan and Rome, with immigrants accused of the crimes.

The rapes last week of an American woman in Milan and a Lesotho woman in Rome, in which immigrants are accused, stunned Italians and abruptly shifted the focus of the mayoral campaign in the capital to Italy's increasingly uncomfortable relationship with its growing immigrant population.

The unease was underscored by the unexpected success of the anti-immigrant Northern League party in national elections 10 days ago. The Northern League doubled its support nationally, capturing 8.2 percent of the vote, and hit peaks of more than 25 percent in regions like the Veneto. The Northern League took advantage of concern about crime and unregulated immigration, said Marzio Barbagli, a sociology professor at the University of Bologna.

Roberto Maroni, a top Northern League official, is widely expected to become minister of the interior, a post he held during Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's first short-lived administration in 1994. News reports in the past week quoted Maroni as saying that citizen safety would be a priority of the incoming government, including "a tougher line on illegal immigration," which he linked to violent crime.

Interior Ministry statistics released last Monday indicated that crime in Italy has grown less than 5 percent in two years, and even more slowly in Rome. The most significant rise was in house break-ins and muggings.

About 35 percent of all crimes were committed by foreigners, according to the Interior Ministry, with the list topped by immigrants from Romania, who have grown in number since it joined the European Union last year.

According to statistics from the first eight months of last year, the most recent available, about 16 percent of all foreigners charged with crimes were Romanian, a figure that rose to 75 percent in Rome. "There is a problem of crime in Italy, certainly, but above all because foreigners live in precarious situations when they first come," said Franco Pittau, coordinator of the annual immigration statistics report commissioned by Caritas/Migrantes, the social service arm of the Roman Catholic Church. The situation might be different, he suggested, if Italy implemented programs to assist new arrivals. Maroni has said that the new Berlusconi government will consider taking steps against Romanians.
On Thursday evening, Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu of Romania telephoned Berlusconi to discuss the "recent spate of violence" involving Romanians in Italy, the Romanian government said Friday. The two leaders concurred that "the public perception of these facts must not harm Romanian citizens or bilateral relations" and agreed to meet as soon as Berlusconi takes office, the statement said.
Marcella Lucidi, the outgoing Italian undersecretary of the interior, who was responsible for immigration, said that if the entrance of Romania into the EU has created difficulties, "we should reflect on this at a European level," including the countries of the former Eastern bloc. "Italy can't act alone," Lucidi said.
IHT