Salvini hails demolition of Sinti home (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, June 19 - Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday hailed the demolition of an illegally constructed home in an unauthorized camp where people of the Sinti ethnicity live near Turin. The demolition was ordered by a town council run by his League party, he said.
    "This morning an illegal house in an unauthorized Sinti camp was knocked down at Carmagnola (province of Turin), where the League run the council," Salvini, who is also deputy premier, said via Twitter. "(We're going) from words to deeds. The Italians come first".
    Earlier on Tuesday Salvini said he was not backing down on his controversial proposal to have a census of the people of Roma ethnicity in Italy. "'Census' of Roma and control of the public money spent (on them)," Salvini said on Facebook. "If the left proposes it, then it is all right, but if I propose it, then it is RACISM. "I'm not giving up, I'm going straight on! The Italians and their security come first". The 21 Luglio association that defends the rights of the nation's Roma and Sinti communities said Salvini's plan was illegal.
    Noemi Di Segni, the president of Italy's union of Jewish communities, said the proposal recalled the Fascist racial laws.
    The opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said the plan was "abhorrent". Roberto Speranza, a lawmaker for the leftwing Freedom and Equality (LeU) group, said Tuesday that he had reported Salvini for allegedly inciting racial hatred over the Roma census proposal. "Enough is enough," Speranza said. "Today again Salvini was insisting on the (idea of) a census for Roma. "Words are no longer enough for me. That's why I have decided to report the minister".