#fratelli d'italia mayor

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Deutsch

Police in Rome and Frosinone arrested several people - including a Fratelli d’Italia mayor - and seized assets on Thursday as part of a major investigation into a criminal network accused of illegally securing public contracts for migrant reception services funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Plan. Ten people have been placed under house arrest, and three were banned from bidding for public contracts due to the investigation known as "The Good Lobby" led by the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome. Among those detained were the mayor of Ceccano, Roberto Caligiore, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia party, and business people and officials from Frosinone and Naples. The suspects are charged with conspiracy and corruption for allegedly rigging public tenders funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Authorities have also frozen more than €500,000 in assets believed to be the proceeds of illegal activities.

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[bopinion]

2024 / 19

Aperçu of the Week

"A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy, educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership."

(Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a dominant figure in modern African literature)

Bad News of the Week

For a long time, it seemed as if “the office was stronger than the person” in Italy too. After all, the election victory of Giorgia Meloni of the right-wing populist Fratelli d'Italia was not the end of Italian democracy. The Prime Minister is far more pragmatic and balanced in her day-to-day political activities than her shrill tones during the election campaign would suggest. The conservative Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder has just visited and discovered “many similarities”. So all is well in Rome?

No. Because behind the scenes, the young (she is just 47 years old) surprise politician is demonstrating an ice-cold calculation for power. At first, everyone was surprised at how she, the newcomer, managed to contain the political warhorses Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia) and Matteo Salvini (Lega Nord) and not just be a naive junior partner. And now, bit by bit, she is consolidating her power - also by democratically dubious means.

Example 1 from last week: Meloni is planning to amend the constitution to weaken parliament and the president - in favor of the prime minister. She even speaks of the “mother of all reforms”, with the aim of “giving Italians a stable and credible government that fully reflects the will of the people.” The most important point is that the prime minister is to be elected directly by the people in future. If the MPs overthrow the head of government through a vote of no confidence, he or she will in future be able to demand the dissolution of parliament and new elections. A clear shift of power in favor of the executive.

Example 2 from this week: shortly after the Meloni government took office in October 2022, influential managers in the RAI public broadcaster family were replaced, well-known journalists and presenters left, not always voluntarily. Now there is even talk of censorship, and the influence on journalistic freedom and the independence of the news is becoming ever stronger. For example, ministers of the reigning government are to be given more speaking time in the European election campaign. RAI has already been nicknamed “Telemoni”: Meloni's television.

The fact that Meloni herself is on the ballot paper in the upcoming European elections “as a brand” is also an undemocratic bluff. After all, no one can seriously believe that she would give up her post as head of government to go to Brussels as a normal parliamentarian. Democracy in Italy may not be in immediate danger, but it is under attack. And hopefully it knows how to defend itself.

Good News of the Week

I often disagree with voting decisions in my personal environment. Not with the specific individual decision, which of course everyone has to decide for themselves and their conscience. But with the way in which many make their decisions. Take the example of my long-deceased former mother-in-law from North Rhine-Westphalia. After federal elections, she told me that she had always voted for the Social Democrats. I replied that I didn't think it was good to always vote the same way automatically and without thinking it over. Shortly afterwards, there were elections for mayor in her town. She proudly tells me that this time she voted for the Conservative candidate. When I asked why, she looked at me in astonishment and said: “You told me so!”. Got the point?

I think the right to vote is holy. After all, it is the only way (let's leave referendums and plebiscites aside) that the sovereign, aka the people, can exercise their political co-determination without having to run for office themselves. That is why I would prefer to turn the right to vote into compulsory voting. If only for the reason that every non-voter tends to strengthen the fringes, which is already going too far to the right. Elections are the high office of any democracy. And also a responsibility. That's why I always find it difficult to deal with frivolous political decision-making. For example, when someone simply does the same as their partner because they're "not particularly interested in politics anyway". Or when someone gets caught up in a cheap slogan like “Your country first!”. Or my former mother-in-law.

That's why I regularly make passionate pleas for elections as a way of participating in democracy. The next elections in Germany are for the European Parliament. This is becoming increasingly important due to the tendency for more and more essential framework conditions to be decided at EU level. Similarly, some issues, such as migration, cannot be resolved by national governments acting alone. One specific feature of European elections is that you can vote at the age of 16 and do not have to be 18, i.e. of legal age. My son will be 16 exactly on time and has received “voting papers” for the first time in his life. His older sister is studying political science, so I don't have to explain anything to her. Both of them will be voting, of course. Which my wife is not allowed to do as a (EU) foreign citizen, even though she lives here.

In Germany there is the “Wahl-o-mat” - something like “Voting machine". This is a web application (from the independent “Federal Agency for Civic Education”) that asks you three dozen questions on current political issues and then compares them with the election program of all the parties standing for election. So with five minutes of effort, you get a solid basis for your election decision. Unsurprisingly, the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany) came last in terms of agreement for all of us. So I must have done some things right in my upbringing. The top three, on the other hand, are similar in varying order, but as I insist on electoral secrecy, I will never know for sure.

Why are these personal stories in the “Good News of the week”? Because it's a privilege to be able to vote. And - unlike in many other countries, including democratic ones - to have a real choice. And I repeat my plea to all those who will have this opportunity in the near future, from Europe in June to the USA in November: Use it. And use it wisely. Thank you!

Personal happy moment of the week

Today I had to take a train to Cologne for a business trip. And I didn't opt for the tightest connection so as not to have to rush. Fortunately. Because I had forgotten my digital second brain at home - my iPad with relevant data for this trip. My wife was kind enough to drive after me with just this scarce connection to bring it to me. Although she (of course) had other plans. She must really love me. Merci, chérie!

I couldn't care less...

...that FC Bayern Munich will end a soccer season without a title for the first time in 12 years. Because on closer inspection, that only applies to one part of the club: the men's team. The women's team confidently clinched the German championship title on the third-last match day. With a win against Bayer Leverkusen, of all teams, whose men had dethroned our men shortly before. I think we should be just as happy about that.

It's fine with me...

...that Germany, or rather our performer Isaak, was voted into the solid midfield at the Eurovision Song Contest this time after several years in last place: 12th place out of 25. In general, this biggest music event in the world once again fulfilled all expectations: a great stage show, unnecessary commentators, bad but well-produced Eurotrash songs, accompanying scandals, eternal voting processes, queer atmosphere. It's fitting that Nemo from Switzerland is the first officially non-binary person to win. “A victory for diversity” is one of the many media reactions. Now it is up to Switzerland to finally recognize the third gender. Because democracy demands it.

As I write this...

...a difficult time for my nose begins again on public transport, in supermarkets and actually anywhere you come into close contact with strangers due to the increasing heat. I would love to constantly wave a flag that says “Personal hygiene is respect for your neighbor”.

Post Scriptum

Vladimir Putin was sworn in as President of the Russian Federation for the fifth time. He won 87% of the vote in the rigged sham elections and will now be in power until 2030 thanks to a constitutional amendment made especially for him and this case. Russia has a tsar again. And still no democracy.

[noisynutcrusade]

Beatrice Venezi challenged at concert in Nice: "We don't want fascists"

The conductor Beatrice Venezi conducted the New Year's concert at the Nice Opera, entrusted to her by the mayor Christian Estrosi, an exponent of Horizons. The idea did not go down well with exponents of the far left who in the previous months had protested against Venezi's choice, considering her past participation in the Fratelli d'Italia convention and her ideological closeness to the Italian…

[emily84]

Last year's anniversary of the deportation took place amid tensions between Italy's Jewish community and the far-right Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) over scandals linked to the political party.

The first controversy came in September 2021 after an investigative report by Fanpage into senior FdI figures and their associates in Milan included footage of explicit racist and fascist jokes as well as anti-Semitic comments and references to Hitler.

FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, now poised to become Italy's next prime minister following her triumph in the recent general election, insisted that there was no space for racism or anti-Semitism in her party.

Days later the FdI-backed candidate in Rome's mayoral race, Enrico Michetti, became embroiled in a scandal over an article in which he argued that the Holocaust is commemorated more than other massacres in history, such as the Foibe, because the Jews "control the banks."

Michetti offered a "sincere apology" for his words which were "dangerous and hide a disturbing prejudice”, according to the president of Rome's Jewish community, Ruth Dureghello.

In an effort to calm the situation, Meloni said she would lay a wreath at the Synagogue the day before a mayoral run-off in which Michetti faced centre-left candidate and incumbent Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri.

However this was deemed "inappropriate" by Rome's Jewish community, and Dureghello requested Meloni to postpone her visit until after the vote.

^^^ these are the people we elected to government. no words.

Rome's Jewish community commemorates today the 79th anniversary of the deportation of more than 1,000 of the city’s Jews to the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz.

The raid occurred at dawn on 16 October 1943, when 1,024 Roman Jews - including 200 children - were rounded up in the city’s Ghetto district and taken across the river Tiber to the Collegio Militare on Via della Lungara.

Two days later they were sent to Auschwitz on a sealed train from Tiburtina station.

Only 16 were to make it back to Rome alive: 15 men and one woman, Settimia Spizzichino, who died in the Garbatella neighbourhood in 2000.

This is the fourth year that the anniversary occurs without any of the 16 survivors, the last of whom, Lello Di Segni, died in 2018.

[antisemitism-eu]

Italy: Tariq Ramadan not welcome, 'known for his anti-Semitic views', says Jewish community leader

Via Jewish European Press:

Tarik Ramadan

"Unfortunately, Tariq Ramadan has not been able to reach Italy because of health reasons and therefore in the afternoon he will not be physically present at the presentation of the book ‘The Muslim and Agnostic’, as scheduled in the  Erickson Center  in Trento." 

With this statement, a representative of the Erickson Center of Trento  explains that the long-awaited arrival of someone who is considered one of the most influential intellectuals of Western Islam and professor at Oxford University will not be in Trento today to present the book written with Riccardo Mazzeo. 

Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss-born philosophy professor currently based in France. When speaking to Western audiences, Ramadan preaches an amicable message of unity and mutual respect. But to Arabic-speaking audiences, he vents his deep-seated hatred of the West and his endorsement of Wahhabism, the most extreme form of Islam.  (...)

His arrival in Italy  was preceded by many controversies. First Ramadan was expected in Bolzano, at the Center for Peace, but a series of criticisms and controversy convinced the organizers, on Sunday, to move the meeting to Trento. 

The mayor of Bolzano, Renzo Caramaschi,  announced that he will not  meet Ramadan in the town hall, and that he doesn’t appreciate the presence of the scholar. 

"I do appreciate alternative positions and ideas to mine  - the mayor explains - and I am  tolerant of people who do not share my  thoughts but there is also a limit to that. And in this case, Ramadan, who I know I've been greeted him in Trento for a long time without problems, is still a very controversial borderline character for me. " 

After the organizers decided  to move the meeting from Bolzano  to Trento at the headquarters of the Erickson Center, Italy’s political right parties Forza Italia, Lega da  agire and  Fratelli d'Italia protested the initiative. 

Tensions therefore already existed for the arrival of an intellectual that detractors complain of being "anti-Semitic" and as a person "far from our values" and admirers instead define "one of the greatest intellectuals in the Islamic world."

Shortly before the Mayor of Bolzano  rejected Ramadan’s presence,  the president of the Jewish community of Merano, Elisabetta Rossi Innerhofer, said: "I am shocked by the fact that Ramadan  has been invited  to Bolzano with all honor in the town hall. He has always attacked the State of Israel, he is known for his anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist positions and  speaking in French TV in 2003 in a debate with former President Sarkozy he had defended the Islamic law which stipulates stoning for women accused of adultery. I guess he has not changed his mind since then, at least I did not hear."

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