European campaign revives cold war between pope and Salvini

ROME.- There has always been a "silent war" between Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right and xenophobic League and strongman of the Italian government, and Francisco.

Pope,

Having become the voice of immigrants, refugees and the excluded, he has been the subject of criticism from Salvini since July 2013, when he went to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa , symbol of the drama of the desperate who drowned in the Mediterranean during their attempt. to have a better life

Europe

This first gesture by Jorge Bergoglio scandalized the far-right parties that live off their speeches and their anti-immigrant policies. A line also adopted by Salvini at the inauguration of his post as Italian Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister last June, when he decided to close the country's ports to NGO ships that rescue migrants. "Firstly the Italians" is the battle cry of Salvini, a totally antithetical figure of the pope.

Already before arriving at the government, Salvini, who proclaimed himself a Catholic and who, in some acts, holds the Bible and the Rosary, disagreed with the vision of the Church opened to the last one. of Francis, a pope, son of immigrants. In an act that he directed in 2016, he distributed t-shirts bearing the caption: "My father is Benedicto".

In the last part of the campaign for the elections for the renewal of the European Parliament to be held next Sunday, the Cold War between Salvini and Bergoglio, two opposing personalities, but very popular in Italy, never surfaced.

Last week, right-wing groups attacked a gypsy family to which the municipality of Rome – owned by Virginia Raggi of the Five-Star Movement – had badigned a house in Casal Bruciato, a neighborhood on the outskirts. from the capital.

In a virtual response to this episode, one of the many racism and xenophobia that has mushroomed in recent times, the pope has received 500 people from the Roma and Sinti communities of the Vatican. "I read the newspapers and I suffer, this is not a civilization," said the pope, who also personally greeted the family victim of the attack.

"I am happy that the pope has met Romani and holy children in the Vatican: to protect them, my goal is to close all the fields, by first identifying those who live there, ensuring that children go to school. and not be educated, steal or force to live in situations of degradation, dirt, violence or illegality, "said Salvini. The Interior Minister has never been able to get a hearing in the Vatican by Francisco, which some badysts see as the only obstacle to rising right-wing populism in the Old Continent.

Attack

In another faithful reflection of the struggle, Salvini returned to the attack after the terrible episode committed by the Polish cardinal Konrad Krajevski, a pontifical beggar, who fell last Saturday in a sewer and reactivated the electricity in a building occupied by nearly 500 people that the power company had cut the supply for six days for lack of payment. Salvini immediately asked the Polish cardinal, renamed "Robin Hood" of the pope, to pay all bills late. "Supporting illegal behavior is never a good sign," said the Minister of the Interior, who recalled that there are also many Italians "who have difficulties" to pay their bills.

"I will also pay the ballot papers of Salvini," laughed the Polish cardinal, very close to the pope, explaining that he had acted for the motive of "humanity" and following the # 39; Gospel. Interestingly, the day after the "illegal" act of Krajevski appeared in the Vatican, just at noon, in the time of the Angelus, a huge banner against Francisco. "Bergoglio as Badoglio,
Stop Immigration, "said the poster displayed by Forza Nuova, a neo-fascist group close to Salvini, in reference to the Italian general who signed the armistice in 1943 with the Allied forces and who is considered a "traitor" by the fascists.

The Pope's response came a few days later, at the general audience on Wednesday, when he climbed the catwalk to surround eight refugee children – from Syria, Nigeria and Congo – who arrived Italy on April 29 from Libya. , thanks to a humanitarian corridor organized by the UN.

How many votes will Salvini reap with his attacks on the pope, who has the support of the Italian Church? It is impossible to know it in a country where the great majority declare themselves Catholic, but where the crisis hits hard and where the bad mood is great.

Many believe that having attacked "Father Corrado", a man of the pope, was a goal against Salvini. In Rome, everyone knows him for distributing food, clothes and medicine to the needy at night. And since he's descended to the sewer to reactivate the light in a busy building that was in the dark for almost a week – symbol of the absence of the state – is revered as a saint.