POLITICAL CONTROVERSY:ITALIAN CENTRE-RIGHT government partner the Northern League came under huge pressure last night to expel its MEP, Mario Borghezio, in the wake of a radio interview in which the senior League figure expressed approval of the "ideas" of the Norwegian mass killer, Anders Behring Breivik.
Speaking to Il Sole 24 radio station, Mr Borghezio said: “Leaving aside the violence, some of the ideas he expressed are good, some of them indeed are very good . . . such as his opposition to Islam and his explicit accusation that Europe has surrendered before putting up a fight against its Islamicisation”.
Mr Borghezio’s comments met with immediate, widespread condemnation. Green Party leader Angelo Bonelli promised that his party would report Mr Borghezio to the police “for instigation of racial hatred”, adding: “The statements by the League’s Euro MP are very serious and they represent an offence to both Norway and the whole of Europe. The European Parliament should censure him immediately.”
Gay rights campaigner Paola Concia of the Democratic Party (PD) said that “in a civilised country” Mr Borghezio’s own party would call for his resignation. While the Northern League has stopped some way short of calling for that resignation, Northern League cabinet minister Roberto Calderoli did say: “I issue an official apology to Norway and above all to the relatives of the victims for the outrageous and unacceptable reflections expressed in a personal capacity by the honourable Mr Borghezio.”
Undeterred either by his party colleague’s criticism or by a web campaign calling for him to be arrested, Mr Borghezio yesterday stood by his comments, dismissing Mr Calderoli’s criticism: “You have to have balls to take up certain positions”.
Furthermore, the Northern League party whip in the European parliament, Francesco Speroni, endorsed his colleague’s comments, saying: “I’m with Borghezio on this; I don’t think he has to resign, the things he said have been manipulated. Breivik’s ideas represent a defence of western civilisation.”
The outspoken views of the two Northern League figures are a fair reflection of the party’s fundamentally racist and xenophobic views. For example, earlier this year when the boat people invasion of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa was at its height, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi offered this response to the migrant crisis prompted by the Arab Spring, saying: “Immigrants? Foeura de ball [Go away and piss off]”.
Mr Borghezio is not new to polemics such as these. Stopped by police near the Italian-French border in July 1976, he was found to be in possession of extreme right-wing literature, including swastikas and “Long Live Hitler” posters. More recently he was one of 150 people stopped by police at a banned “Stop the Islamicisation of Europe” protest in Brussels.