Aggression of athlete Daisy Osakue shocks Italy

RACISM – A series of racially motivated assaults has provoked unease in Italy, where Interior Minister Matteo Salvini quotes Mussolini and insists that his priority remains the fight against delinquent migrants.

Monday July 31, the announcement of the assault of a young athlete black Italian provoked an avalanche of reactions all the more indignant that it arrived after a tight weekend and the revelation by the press of a dozen other cases in less than two months

Daisy Osakue, a 22-year-old record player born in Italy to Nigerian parents, was wounded at one eye on Sunday night after receiving an egg thrown from a car near Turin. [19659002]

Suffering from abrasion and corneal injury, she may not be able to compete at the European Championships next week in Berlin. For her, there is no doubt: her or his attackers were looking for a black target because the attack took place in an area "frequented by African prostitutes", defenseless women that they thought to aim according to her.

In the night from Saturday to Sunday in a small town south of Rome, the suspicion cost the life of a 43-year-old Moroccan, chased by car by Italians accusing him of being a burglar. After striking a wall, he was hit by his pursuers and died in the hospital.

In Palermo, a 19-year-old Senegalese who was standing in front of a bar was beaten by a group of Italians cries of "dirty nigger".

700 crimes a day

"All aggression will be punished and sentenced, I will always be at the side of who undergoes violence," Salvini responded by wishing a quick cure to Daisy Osakue but without mentioning other cases.

On the other hand, the strong man of the new populist government, omnipresent and very popular leader of the League (far right), assured: "Alert to racism in Italy? Do not say "

He also received the support of his government ally Luigi Di Maio, leader of the M5S and also Deputy Prime Minister.

" The novelty is that the media evoke episodes of this kind even if the number of attacks has not changed (…). i use them against the government does not really tackle the problem of racism, "he told reporters.

But far from trying to ease tensions, Salvini continued his offensive:" I remind you that "There are about 700 crimes committed in Italy every day by immigrants, almost a third of the total, and this is the only real urgency for which I am fighting as a minister."

His ministry confirmed Monday: Of the 857,000 people arrested and / or reported since the beginning of the year, all heads combined, 30% were of foreign nationality, while foreigners represent 8.3% of the population in Italy.

"Many enemies, a lot of honor"

Foreigners are also very well represented in Italian prisons: 33% of prisoners on June 30 (for more than half Moroccans, Albanians, Romanians or Tunisians ), although this proportion is largely due to the fact that They rarely meet the conditions for a sentence adjustment.

The calls for tolerance however multiplied on Monday, from the opposition but also the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Last week, the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, condemned the shooting with an airgun accidentally injured, according to its author, a Roma girl who was walking in the street with her mother.

" Italy can not become a far-west where part of the population buys a rifle and fires from the balcony, wounding a one-year-old girl, destroying her health and her future, "he warned. [19659002] Salvini's anti-migrant rhetoric also won him the Catholic wrath, summed up by one of the magazine "Famiglia Cristiana" last week: "Vade retro Salvini".

But the person concerned, adept of constant provocations on social networks, answered these critics at s a way: "Many enemies, a lot of honor," he wrote Sunday morning, adding the emoticon of a kiss.

This variant of a slogan of Benito Mussolini very knowledgeable Italians , used on the day of the anniversary of the birth of Duce, caused a sensation.

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