The View from Bologna

Painting a Polemic, by Numbers

In events that received scant attention from the English language press, last week protests in Libya against those cartoons resulted in rioting, an attack on an Italian consulate, the death of up to 11 protesters (shot by police). The fallout in Italy led to the resignation of a high-profile minister in Berlusconi's government.

Enough column space has been devoted worldwide at this stage to examining the rights and wrongs of publishing the cartoons. That the cartoons have been used and manipulated by fundamentalists and governments throughout the middle east, for disparate ends, seems a given. What has escaped comment, certainly in Italy, is the political use to which the cartoons issue has been put by our own hardliners.

On the 13th of February, Umberto Eco, arguing for moderation (and good manners) in his regular opinion column (in L'Espresso magazine), commented that "it seems that in Copenhagen some NaziSkins proposed burning the Koran in the town square, but if for some reason the police hadn't stopped them, what sensible Muslim would have confused these demons with European public opinion?". At the same time, the Minister for Reforms, Roberto Calderoli, a member of the xenophobic Lega Nord party started a campaign to defend 'freedom of speech'. This culminated with his appearance on prime time TV on Wednesday 16th, participating in a taped current affairs programme, when he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his paunchy chest covered in a t-shirt bearing one of the satirical cartoons. An act of solidarity with the Danish people and Government, we were told.

This, it's worth repeating, was not the act of a private citizen, but that of a government Minister and leading figure in one of the main coalition parties. The Lega Nord from the outset have been the most vociferous defenders of the Danish cartoons in Italy, offering free Danish beer and biscuits throughout their political heartland of Northern Italy*, at meetings organised to collect signatures for a petition to block voting rights for immigrants[1].

This crusading zeal, to protect freedom of speech, on the part of the Lega had been inexplicably absent previously, at least when dealing with the numerous cases of political censorship that have occured in the public broadcasting sector - Italy, we should remind our readers, currently ranks #77 (between Bulgaria and Mongolia) in the World Press freedom rankings calculated by Freedom House. The cynical might suggest that the Lega defend freedom of speech, when they like the speech...

On Friday the 17th, in the North Eastern Libyan town of Bengasi, a protest against the cartoons (organised by the local Mosques) diverted from its original route and arrived in front of the local Italian consulate. Reports differ as to how events proceeded from here - what is certain is that one youth attempted to rip down the Italian flag, and that (Libyan) armed police started firing into the crowd killing up to 10 protesters. Rioting ensued and Italian nationals were advised by their ambassador to leave the country for their own safety.

Berlusconi, and his Deputy PM, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and leader of the 'post-fascist' Alleanza Nazionale party, Gianfranco Fini(TIFOF™) immediately called for Calderoli's resignation. By Sunday morning it was received, as practically the entire political establishment, both right and left, denounced Calderoli's stunt as irresponsible.

Were calls for Calderoli's resignation by Berlusconi and Fini a signal that the Lega's extremism had become an electoral liability? Would the party be sidelined? On the contrary, due to some extraordinary political alchemy - however fuzzy its logic - the Lega by yesterday had managed to reassert itself at the centre of the coalition, setting the tone for the electoral campaign. The Lega's federal council, meeting to discuss Calderoli's resignation, and whether it changed the party's relationship with its coalition partners, announced a five point programme that would have to be adopted by the coalition in order to keep the party on-board:
1) The defence of the Christian roots of Europe and opposition to fundamentalism;
2) Fiscal federalism;
3) Financial support for the family - defined explicitly as that based on marriage between a man and a woman;
4) Reinforcements for the fight against illegal immigration, and the inclusion of a system to privilege, within the limits of current legislation, countries that recognise reciprocal human rights, civil, political and religious;
5) An explicit committment to support a yes vote in the upcoming referendum on the reform of the Constitution (The referendum is designed to repeal recent legislation introducing a form of devolution, strongly supported by the Lega itself).

Berlusconi and Fini immediately declared themselves in harmony with the Lega's points. Calderoli, adaptable to every media situation, got in touch with his t-shirt printers getting them to change the design from that of the offensive cartoons to that of a slogan 'Proud to be a Christian'.

Defending Christianity is the call of the day. The Lega, backed by other centre-right parties, have jumped head first into the media to defend their co-religionists in Turkey, in Nigeria, in Indonesia, anywhere in fact where they can find instances of violence against Christians - preferably committed by Muslims. Nigerian Christians living in Italy might raise a wry smile at this, considering the Lega's attitude to Africans in general (Party leader Umberto Bossi famously used the term 'Bingo-Bongo' as a catch all for African immigrants). Christian villagers murdered in Nigeria are important to the centre right, in so far as they give a pretext for discussing defence of Christian values.

It's unclear how the Lega would defend Christian values outside of Italy, and even more unclear as to why one would need to defend these values within Italy. That Christians are under attack in areas of the world is undeniable - that this does not include Italy is also undeniable. Roman Catholics are in a majority in Italy, Roman Catholic doctrine is in many cases legislated for, and the Pope's honour and prestige are protected, by law. How are these Christian values under attack, and by whom? Nowhere in the Lega's five points is any mention made to freedom of speech - presumably because it's not now, nor has it ever been, a principle 'Christian' value.

Were we really talking about freedom of speech, we'd be discussing the complete repeal of blasphemy laws in Italy. Laws which make it an offence to insult religions nominated by the State. Laws which once applied solely to the Catholic Church, but which have now been extended to a list of approved religions including Islam. Laws under which Oriana Fallaci is currently being prosecuted. Calderoli's actions last week are being investigated to see whether a prosecution should be initiated.

An unamed Lega member quoted by the Corriere della Sera was frank about the whole affair: "We'll impose our campaign against Islam. Because it's true, we've lost a Minister, but what does that matter? We're at the end of the legislature and this clash can only win us votes"[2].

Islamic fundamentalists across the middle east have used the publication of the cartoons as a handy cause to consolidate their power base. How different are the Lega?

Posted by 3Monkeys at February 21, 2006 07:14 PM

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