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Anger over plans for Italy’s Salvini to speak at events in the UK

British anti-fascist groups have planned a "Sardines"-style protest in Liverpool after events were organised in the name of Italian far-right League leader Matteo Salvini.

Published: 12 February 2020 15:37 CET
Anger over plans for Italy's Salvini to speak at events in the UK
ItalianItalian League party leader Matteo Salvini. Photo: AFP

The protests have been organised amid concern that populist Salvini is planning to speak at venues in Liverpool and London this spring, the Liverpool Echo reported.

Tickets are on sale at £28 (€33) a head for what appears to be a dinner event being hosted by Lega nel Mondo, an international network established by Salvini in 2018.

Advertisements suggest Salvini will be speaking at as-yet undisclosed venues in the UK and Ireland in March and April.

A screenshot of one UK event being advertised online.

Leader of the right-wing League party and Italy’s former deputy prime minister, Salvini frequently grabs headlines in Italy and abroad with his anti-immigrant outbursts, controversial publicity stunts, and divisive “Italians first” rhetoric.

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The event website is very vague, and invites supporters of the Italian politician to email for further information.

Lega nel Mondo had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.

In Liverpool, anti-racism groups quickly responded by organising a peaceful protest which, the Echo reports, will take inspiration from the 'Sardine' movement that has recently sprung up in Italy to protest the politics of Salvini and other right-wing figures in the country.

READ ALSO: 'Enough hate': Who are the protesting 'Sardines' packing into Italian squares?

The protest movement began as a flash mob protest in Bologna in November, at which organisers said people would be “packed like sardines” into the city's main piazza.

A “sardines” protest against Matteo Salvini and the League party in the Italian city of Florence in December. Photo: AFP

The anti-Salvini protest in Liverpool is being organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and Stand Up to Racism and is being supported by Labour politicians and other groups.

A spokesperson for UAF stated: “No venue in Liverpool should host such a person as Salvini. Liverpool of course is a proudly, multicultural city with great anti fascist traditions.”

Salvini has been he subject of five criminal investigations within the past two years. He is currently the subject of one ongoing trial and numerous lawsuits.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that Salvini is now also to stand trial on charges of illegally detaining migrants at sea, after senators upheld a vote by the lower house to strip him of his parliamentary immunity. If found guilty in this case, Salvini could face prison.

READ ALSO: More than half of Italians think racist attacks 'can be justified', poll finds

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EUROPEAN UNION

Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she would stand in upcoming European Parliament elections, a move apparently calculated to boost her far-right party, although she would be forced to resign immediately.

Published: 28 April 2024 15:54 CEST
Italian PM Meloni to stand in EU Parliament elections

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-Fascist roots, came top in Italy’s 2022 general election with 26 percent of the vote.

It is polling at similar levels ahead of the European elections on from June 6-9.

With Meloni heading the list of candidates, Brothers of Italy could exploit its national popularity at the EU level, even though EU rules require that any winner already holding a ministerial position must immediately resign from the EU assembly.

“We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 — creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!” Meloni told a party event in the Adriatic city of Pescara.

In a fiery, sweeping speech touching briefly on issues from surrogacy and Ramadan to artificial meat, Meloni extolled her coalition government’s one-and-a-half years in power and what she said were its efforts to combat illegal immigration, protect families and defend Christian values.

After speaking for over an hour in the combative tone reminiscent of her election campaigns, Meloni said she had decided to run for a seat in the European Parliament.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

“I’m doing it because I want to ask Italians if they are satisfied with the work we are doing in Italy and that we’re doing in Europe,” she said, suggesting that only she could unite Europe’s conservatives.

“I’m doing it because in addition to being president of Brothers of Italy I’m also the leader of the European conservatives who want to have a decisive role in changing the course of European politics,” she added.

In her rise to power, Meloni, as head of Brothers of Italy, often railed against the European Union, “LGBT lobbies” and what she has called the politically correct rhetoric of the left, appealing to many voters with her straight talk.

“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian” she famously declared at a 2019 rally.

She used a similar tone Sunday, instructing voters to simply write “Giorgia” on their ballots.

“I have always been, I am, and will always be proud of being an ordinary person,” she shouted.

EU rules require that “newly elected MEP credentials undergo verification to ascertain that they do not hold an office that is incompatible with being a Member of the European Parliament,” including being a government minister.

READ ALSO: Why is Italy’s government being accused of helping tax dodgers?

The strategy has been used before, most recently in Italy in 2019 by Meloni’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right Lega party.

The EU Parliament elections do not provide for alliances within Italy’s parties, meaning that Brothers of Italy will be in direct competition with its coalition partners Lega and Forza Italia, founded by Silvio Berlusconi.

The Lega and Forza Italia are polling at about seven percent and eight percent, respectively.

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