The influential Italian Bishops
Conference (CEI) on Thursday joined criticism of nationalist
opposition League leader Matteo Salvini ringing the doorbell of
a Tunisian family in Bologna and asking if a drug pusher was
there.
"It was not a particularly felicitous attitude," said CEI
Secretary General Msgr Stefano Russo.
Tunisia's ambassador to Italy on Wednesday said populist
strongman Salvini was guilty of "deplorable provocation" after
the anti-migrant former interior minister heavily publicised
anti-drugs stunt in the Emilian capital.
Ambassador Moez Sinaoui told ANSA he had written to Senate
Speaker Maria Elisebetta Casllati to complain about Senator
Salvini's "regrettable" behaviour, which he said had shown "a
lack of respect for the private abode of a Tunisian family" and
had been "divulged in an ostentatious way to public opinion".
Sinaoui voiced his "consternation" at the "shameful episode".
He told ANSA: "I voiced my consternation to Speaker Casellati
because this gesture comes from a member of the Senate, a high
institution of Italy, with which Tunisia has a long history of
friendship, in particular between the two parliaments."
In the case, Sinaoui said, "a Tunisian family has been
stigmatised, and we don't want members of our community to be
stigmatised in an illegitimate way in an electoral campaign.
Emilia Romagna, the region around Bologna, elects a new
government and governor on Sunday.
Earlier Wednesday the Tunisian parliament's deputy speaker
said Salvini had shown himself to be a "racist" in the case.
The incident in Bologna's high crime working class Pilastro
district showed "a racist and shameful attitude that undermines
relations between Italy and Tunisia," said the official, Osama
Sghaier.
Salvini was led to the flat by a local mother of a dead
addict who told him a pusher allegedly lived there.
He commended her actions, saying more people should show such
concern for their communities.
Salvini rang the bell of the Tunisian family and said "good
evening madam, is your son a drug pusher?".
Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Salvini has been
criticised for anti-migrant policies he enacted as interior
minister in the last government.
These including shutting Italy's ports to NGO rum migrant
rescue ships, and a migrant and security decree which critics
said criminalised migrants by stripping them of certain rights.
Salvini responded to the Tunisian official's charge by saying
"I listened to the cry of pain from a mother courage who lost
her son to drugs.
"An act of appreciation that we should all do: the fight
against drug pushers should unite and not divide.
"Zero tolerance for drugs and pushers of death: for us it is
a priority.
"In Emilia Romagna and in the whole of Italy there are decent
hardworking immigrants, who have integrated and respect the law.
But those who push drugs are a problem for all: whether they are
Italian or foreign, it makes no difference."
Salvini is campaigning hard in Emilia Romagna ahead of the
regional elections there on Sunday.
The alleged pusher, 17, said Wednesday he was seeking legal
advice from a local lawyer who has set up a campaign against
hate speech, Cathy La Torre.
The youth was born in Italy of Tunisian parents. His father
has also resorted to La Torre's services.
Popular leftwing DJ, writer and actor Fabio Volo mocked
Salvini for "only taking it out on the weak" saying "go and ring
the doorbell of the Camorra", the Naples mafia, "if you have the
balls for it".
Volo's remark went viral, with most commentators on social
media appearing to agree with him.
But Leaguers and members of their two allies, Silvio
Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and Giorgia
Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy (Fd)) party, said the
League leader had "only been doing his civic duty".
Italian police have not said whether the youth has been
pulled up for pushing or not.
Italian police chief Franco Gabrielli said Thursday "I
criticise both those who deal out justice door-to-door and those
who accuse the police in an indiscriminate way".
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