Salvini wants Italy’s ‘little ethnic shops’ to close at 9pm

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has proposed a mandatory 9pm closing time for what he called "little ethnic shops", which he claimed were a haven for drug dealers.

Published: 12 October 2018 17:05 CEST

Salvini wants Italy's 'little ethnic shops' to close at 9pm

Matteo Salvini claimed his proposal wasn't meant to target foreign business owners. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Italy's late-night corner shops, many of which are run by Bangladeshi, Indian or other immigrants, have become “a meeting place for drug dealers and people who cause trouble”, the interior minister claimed.

His new law and order decree, most of which is aimed at making it easier to deport foreigners who commit crimes or don't have permission to stay, will include a measure that obliges “little ethnic shops” to shut their doors at 9pm, he announced via his Facebook page.

“It's not a move against foreign shops, just to limit abuses,” said Salvini, who is also Italy's deputy prime minister and head of the League party.

Retail association Confesercenti warned that it would be discriminatory to single out certain business owners and not others.

“Whoever has a commercial activity has rights and responsibilities: the responsibility to respect the rules and the right to remain open, whether your business is run by foreigners or by Italians,” said the association's secretary general, Mauro Bussoni.

Meanwhile consumer association Codacons pointed out the value of late-night stores to shoppers, who have the chance to pick up anything from snacks to laundry detergent into the small hours.

However, Codacons president Carlo Rienzi said he was in favour of closing corner shops in cases when they cause disorder, and categorically in the historic centre of cities, “because their presence contributes to urban decay and mars the artistic beauty”.

Such decisions are usually left to local councils, some of which have taken measures to prevent certain businesses from operating in protected zones. Earlier this year the council of Pistoia in Tuscany ruled that shops in the city centre must write their signs in the Roman alphabet as part of measures to protect the medieval town's “authenticity”.

“Tourists who come to Pistoia don't come to have lunch in a kebab shop, to see a money transfer shop, nor to buy a canned drink from a 24/7 vending machine,” Mayor Alessandro Tomasi was quoted as saying at the time, adding: “We don't want foreign shops, we don't want mini-markets, we don't want money transfer services.”

More recently Italy's other deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement, proposed to return to the days when shops weren't allowed to open on Sundays, saying that seven-day-a-week trading was “destroying Italian families”.

Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.