The mayor of one of two towns near Ferrara where residents set up barricades and road blocks to stop the arrival of a small group of refugees this week said Wednesday that the local community now had to show a different side to itself. Goro Mayor Diego Viviani also denied that the decision to take the refugees elsewhere had been a victory. "It was a reaction in the heat of the moment and now, with cool heads, we must show that we are different to how we have been portrayed, a little too hastily and perhaps in a nasty way," Viviani told Sky television. Eleven female refugees, including a pregnant woman, and their children were temporarily relocated after locals in Goro and nearby Gorino rebelled against their arrival.
The reaction of the local community was widely condemned, with Interior Minister Angelino Alfano saying it did not reflect Italy and the Catholic Church blasting it as "repugnant". The head of the Northern League caucus in the Emilia-Romagna regional assembly, however, on Wednesday hailed as "heroes" locals from the towns of Gorino and Goro. "There aren't any Fascists in Gorino, there are heroes," Alan Fabbri said. "Many good people said no to an initiative of the prefect, who had seized a hostel to put immigrant women inside. "It's a victory for the community against an imperial act by the prefect of Ferrara".
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