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‘Embarrassing conduct’: Anger in Italy after Salvini’s election doorbell stunt

Videos of Italian right-wing politician Matteo Salvini buzzing the intercoms of immigrant residents to ask if they deal drugs have gone viral, spurring wide condemnation and a diplomatic row.

Published: 23 January 2020 16:27 CET
'Embarrassing conduct': Anger in Italy after Salvini's election doorbell stunt
League leader Matteo Salvini on the campaign trail in Bologna. Photo: AFP

Salvini, the former interior minister and leader of the anti-immigrant League, opted for shock tactic during a visit to Bologna on Tuesday to shore up the vote ahead of weekend regional elections.

In the widely-circulated videos, Salvini – surrounded by cameras and a neighbourhood resident – rings an apartment building buzzer.

READ ALSO: Thousands rally in Bologna against far right ahead of regional vote

When a person answers, Salvini says he's heard that drugs are sold there and asks whether or not it's true.

After being hung up on, Salvini asks the crowd around him, “That was him? He's Tunisian?”
On Thursday, Tunisia's ambassador to Italy, Moez Sinaoui, told Italian newswire AGI he was “concerned by the embarrassing conduct” of Salvini, calling it a “provocation with no respect for a private residence.”

A protester in Bologna holds a sign bearing comments made by Matteo Salvini in recent years. Photo: AFP

Salvini is no stranger to provocation and drug dealing is a common refrain in his highly publicised media stunts.

He called the government “drug dealers” when parliament voted to approve the sale of a mild version of cannabis last year (though the bill was thrown out) and often ventures into the main piazzas of Italian cities saying he'll chase away dealers.

In the video Salvini buzzed the residence a second time, saying he wanted to “restore your family's good name because someone says that you and your son deal drugs.”

Italian media reported that the son had sought the assistance of a lawyer for possible legal action against Salvini.

“I'm not a drug dealer. I play football. In a few months I'm going to be a father,” said the young man in a video posted on La Repubblica, who said he was born in Italy to Tunisian parents. “Salvini better take that video off the web.”

An NGO, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, called Salvini's actions a “hateful election propaganda move” and pledged any legal assistance needed.

On Twitter on Wednesday, Salvini said he did not regret his actions.

“I did well to buzz, I don't regret it at all, I don't care if drug dealers are Italian or Tunisian. Drugs kill. Whoever picks the League, picks the fight against drugs,” he wrote.

READ ALSO: How Matteo Salvini lost his gamble to become Italy's PM – for now

The right-wing populist League party is hoping to score an historic upset in Sunday's elections in the Emilia Romagna region, historically dominated by the left, where the right has recently made inroads.

Salvini's own party this week voted for him to stand trial over an alleged abuse of power while serving as Italy's interior minister last year – a move critics say is an attempt to position Salvini as a “martyr” ahead of regional elections.

Polls say the race is roughly tied with the Democratic Party (PD).

The League leader hopes that victory in Emilia Romagna could bring about the collapse of the current coalition governmentb, etween the centre-left PD and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, and spur a new general election – though Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said this won't happen.

 “Saying that the regional elections are a vote on the government is wrong,” he told Italian radio.

Member comments

  1. A politician listening to the people and doing something with them who would have thought?
    Residents are sick of these people destroying there lives.

  2. So getting a mob together and accusing some random Africans of being drug dealers with no evidence? This is what Italy wants to be?

    Racist ignorance.

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2024 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe’s far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Far-right parties, set to make soaring gains in the European Parliament elections in June, have one by one abandoned plans to get their countries to leave the European Union.

Published: 6 May 2024 13:35 CEST
From Swexit to Frexit: How Europe's far-right parties have ditched plans to leave EU

Whereas plans to leave the bloc took centre stage at the last European polls in 2019, far-right parties have shifted their focus to issues such as immigration as they seek mainstream votes.

“Quickly a lot of far-right parties abandoned their firing positions and their radical discourse aimed at leaving the European Union, even if these parties remain eurosceptic,” Thierry Chopin, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges told AFP.

Britain, which formally left the EU in early 2020 following the 2016 Brexit referendum, remains the only country to have left so far.

Here is a snapshot:

No Nexit 

The Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders won a stunning victory in Dutch national elections last November and polls indicate it will likely top the European vote in the Netherlands.

While the manifesto for the November election stated clearly: “the PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU – such a pledge is absent from the European manifesto.

For more coverage of the 2024 European Elections click here.

The European manifesto is still fiercely eurosceptic, stressing: “No European superstate for us… we will work hard to change the Union from within.”

The PVV, which failed to win a single seat in 2019 European Parliament elections, called for an end to the “expansion of unelected eurocrats in Brussels” and took aim at a “veritable tsunami” of EU environmental regulations.

No Frexit either

Leaders of France’s National Rally (RN) which is also leading the polls in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron, have also explicitly dismissed talk they could ape Britain’s departure when unveiling the party manifesto in March.

“Our Macronist opponents accuse us… of being in favour of a Frexit, of wanting to take power so as to leave the EU,” party leader Jordan Bardella said.

But citing EU nations where the RN’s ideological stablemates are scoring political wins or in power, he added: “You don’t leave the table when you’re about to win the game.”

READ ALSO: What’s at stake in the 2024 European parliament elections?

Bardella, 28, who took over the party leadership from Marine Le Pen in 2021, is one of France’s most popular politicians.

The June poll is seen as a key milestone ahead of France’s next presidential election in 2027, when Le Pen, who lead’s RN’s MPs, is expected to mount a fourth bid for the top job.

Dexit, maybe later

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said in January 2024 that the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum was an example to follow for the EU’s most populous country.

Weidel said the party, currently Germany’s second most popular, wanted to reform EU institutions to curb the power of the European Commission and address what she saw as a democratic deficit.

But if the changes sought by the AfD could not be realised, “we could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ – a German exit from the EU”, she said.

The AfD which has recently seen a significant drop in support as it contends with various controversies, had previously downgraded a “Dexit” scenario to a “last resort”.

READ ALSO: ‘Wake-up call’: Far-right parties set to make huge gains in 2024 EU elections

Fixit, Swexit, Polexit…

Elsewhere the eurosceptic Finns Party, which appeals overwhelmingly to male voters, sees “Fixit” as a long-term goal.

The Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson and leading MEP Charlie Weimers said in February in a press op ed that “Sweden is prepared to leave as a last resort”.

Once in favour of a “Swexit”, the party, which props up the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the EU due to a lack of public support.

In November 2023 thousands of far-right supporters in the Polish capital Warsaw called for a “Polexit”.

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