(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Nationalist opposition League
party leader and populist strongman Matteo Salvini is a racist,
the Tunisian parliament's deputy speaker said Wednesday after
the former interior minister rang the doorbell of a Tunisian
family in Bologna Tuesday asking if a drug pusher lived there.
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 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
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.
Meanwhile popular 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 people on social media
agreeing with him.
Salvini is a racist says Tunisia vice speaker
Nationalist leader rang Tunisian doorbell asking if pusher there