Italy
Recent stories
Berlusconi attacks multiculturalism during election debate
In the run-up to the April general election, the then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, stated on state-run radio that 'We don't want Italy to become a multiethnic, multicultural country.
1 July 2006 (173 words)
Issues in the Italian general election
Freedom House alliance includes far-Right
1 May 2006 (461 words)
Senate president backs deposed Northern League minister
The president of the Italian Senate, Marcello Pera, said that no apologies should be made for the actions of Roberto Calderoli, even if 'he had made a mistake' since 'if we genuflect before them, we shall lose'.
22 February 2006 (126 words)
Buttiglione to campaign for Christian Europe
Rocco Buttiglione, whose nomination as the EU's justice commissioner was forced to be withdrawn in October, has begun a public campaign to form a 'theocon' movement for those who believe traditional Christian values should be part of public life.
6 December 2004 (160 words)
Former neo-fascist, Fini, to be foreign minister
Silvio Berlusconi named Gianfranco Fini, the leader of Italy's former neo-fascists, as his new foreign minister in a move that offered international political respectability to the heirs of Mussolini's Blackshirts.
27 November 2004 (109 words)
Northern League wants referendum on Turkey
The Northern League, a member of the four-party ruling coalition government, has launched a campaign to demand a referendum on Turkey's bid to join the EU.
19 October 2004 (88 words)
Muslims under pressure from Northern League burka ban
Mario Borghezio, a Northern League MEP created a national controversy when he called for the banning of the burka on the grounds that it was a 'symbol of death' and 'the most obscurantist type of Islamic fundamentalism'.
29 September 2004 (394 words)
Ruling coalition squabbles over immigrants
While the Northern League continues to campaign for tougher immigration laws, senior ministers in Berlusconi's party, backed by employers' organisations, are demanding that quotas for migrant workers be increased.
25 August 2004 (222 words)
Anti-Islamic book fuels racism
Human rights groups have been warning that racism was becoming tolerated in Italy after the Corriere della Sera, published a 126-page anti-Muslim tract by Oriana Fallaci, a veteran journalist and best-selling author.
8 August 2004 (127 words)
Bossi resigns
Ailing leader of the Northern League, Umberto Bossi, resigned on 19 July from Berlusconi's cabinet, leaving the coalition in a weakened position.
20 July 2004 (83 words)
Muslims marginalised
According to IslamOnline members of Italy's growing Muslim community feel marginalised, oppressed and frequently treated with suspicion.
24 June 2004 (137 words)
Northern League proposes new mosque measures
The Northern League minister, Federico Bricolo, has proposed a law to control the building of mosques, which requires requests to build or open mosques (and their financing) to be assessed by local authorities and then decided by local referenda.
18 June 2004 (357 words)
Naples: Berlusconi alliance in bribes allegation
The Spanish daily El Mundo has reported allegations that supporters of Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, the House of Freedoms, bribed poor voters in the southern city of Naples with the offer of 30 euros in return for voting for Gianfranco Fini.
16 June 2004 (111 words)
European elections: modest gains for extreme-Right
The Alleanza Nazionale (AN) and the Lega Nord made modest gains in the June European parliament elections, largely at the expense of prime minister Berlusconi's Forza Italia.
11 June 2004 (92 words)
Verona: Trial of Northern League anti-Gypsy campaigners
The trial has begun of six members of the Northern League who are charged with racial hatred.
4 May 2004 (179 words)
Journalist who posed as migrant sentenced
Fabrizio Gatti, who, in 2000, posed as a migrant worker in order to expose the treatment of workers and conditions at the temporary detention centre in via Corelli, Milan, has been found guilty in May 2004 at a Lombardy court of 'providing false declaration of identity' and given a 20-day suspended sentence.
1 May 2004 (106 words)
AN seek to restore Mussolini sculpture
Members of the post-fascist AN want to restore a 1936 sculpture of Mussolini in Urbino cut into the rock.
27 April 2004 (104 words)
Northern League introduces amendment to legalise torture
The Northern League has been criticised by Amnesty International after League member Carolina Lussana drafted an amendment to legislation suggesting torture would only be illegal if it was a repeated act.
23 April 2004 (103 words)
Fire at League headquarters in Trieste
A fire damaged the offices in Trieste of the Northern League in what may have been an arson attack.
14 April 2004 (53 words)
Bari: police raid on Forza Nuova
Fifteen alleged members of the Forza Nuova and a police officer were arrested in Bari by carabinieri officers from the Special Operations Group.
14 April 2004 (187 words)
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