by Alberto Rochira

(ANSA) - UDINE - ''In the critical and painful moment that we are all experiencing since the Paris attacks, Europe and the West are still thinking of reacting to this threat using Islamophobia and planning another military response. I feel that if this attitude were to prevail, we would face an endless series of attacks''. That's what Slovenian writer and Goran Vojnovic said in Udine, where the author presented the film and the book ''Cefuri Raus! (Scum from South go home!)'', published in Italian by Forum Editrice (Udine), translated by Patrizia Raveggi. The author met the public at the cinema Visionario in the capital town of Friuli, where he was introduced by Norma Zamparo, editorial coordinator of Forum, translator Raveggi and Antonella Nonino, City Councillor for Decentralisation. During the meeting, before the film screening, Vojnovic spoke with the experts Roberto Dapit and Ales Doktoric. Both the novel ''Cefuri Raus!'', which is part of the new series ''(S)confini'', with which Forum opens to fiction, and Vojnovic's movie based on the same novel, address the issue of the rejection of those who are perceived as ''different'' and deals with the difficult integration process of ''Cefuri'', that's how were called those who arrived in Ljubljana from southern republics of the former Yugoslavia - with a derogatory term (slang word similar to Italian ''Terroni'').

Even today, Europe has to deal with the fear of someone who's perceived as ''different'' in the current migrant crisis, and in some countries, including Slovenia, anti-immigrant walls are being built. ''I am obviously opposed to fences that Slovenia is building along its border with Hungary - Vojnovic said - but it must be said that these barriers can be built right where you find borders that were never opened, because until now the idea of a Europe based on peoples never became reality and the borders between countries have never been eliminated''.

States such as Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, ''which are left alone by Europe as it happened before to Italy and Greece'' respond using barriers, said Vojnovic, ''because this reflects the EU's lack of cohesion even in seeking shared solutions to problems''. Vojnovic said that ''it's the moment of truth for Europe, which is going in the wrong direction and should realise that it has not only a financial problem, but also and above all a serious identity problem''. (ANSA).