Mayors of several large Italian cities are vowing to defy a new “security decree” with measures targeting migrants in the country.
The mayors of several of Italy’s largest cities vowed this week to defy a new law backed by Italy’s far-right interior minister that strips legal immigration status from tens of thousands of immigrants already in the country.
Leoluca Orlando, the mayor of the southern port city of Palermo, is spearheading the movement, joined by mayors from cities including Florence, Naples, and Parma. This kind of revolt by municipal officials against a powerful ministry has little precedent in Italy, immigration advocates say.
Über die Protestversammlung auf der Piazza in Palermo berichtet Palermo Repubblica
Über die Erklärung der Bürgermeister*innen um Orlando und die wütenden Reaktionen Salvinis berichtet TheLocal.it am 03.01.:
Orlando argued that the measure was not in line with Italy’s constitution, saying the decree unfairly strips migrants of access to basic healthcare and other local services.
He said excluding migrants from society in this way would lead to potential criminalisation.
„Ours is not an act of civil disobedience or conscientious objection, but the simple application of the constitutional rights that are guaranteed to all those who live in our country,“ Orlando told Repubblica.
Florence mayor Dario Nardella said his city would „not bow to“ a law which „expels asylum-seekers and, without repatriating them, throws them out onto the street“.
Orlando said he wanted to take the issue to a judge, hoping the Constitutional Court would examine the security decree and decide whether or not it complies with the constitution.
In a series of furious tweets and Facebook Live broadcasts today, Salvini said “those who help the illegal migrants hate Italians, and they will answer to the law and to history.”
(Orlando,) spearheading the movement, joined by mayors from cities including Florence, Naples, and Parma. This kind of revolt by municipal officials against a powerful ministry has little precedent in Italy, immigration advocates say.
The affected immigrants “were living [legally] in Palermo, living in Italy, working, paying the tax, paying contribution to social services, and in one day they become illegal,” Orlando said in a phone interview with BuzzFeed News on Thursday. Their integration into the city kept Palermo safer, he said, because they would report problems to the police or mayor’s office.
“The only way to guarantee security is just to respect human rights … but we’re in front of the government that is against human rights, against the constitution,” Orlando continued. “We think that the migrants are human beings … we defend the only race existing — the human race… Whoever divides the races prepares Dachau and Auschwitz, prepares the genocide.”