Will Matteo Salvini apologise? Six years ago the then Italian Minister of the Interior and current deputy Prime Minister, dismissed the mayor of Riace in Calabria, Domenico Lucano, as a man worth nothing. Salvini had attacked Lucano for developing a model for the integration of the refugees arriving in Italy which had been working well.
Riace was just one of countless small towns in the Italian south haemorrhaging population. Relentless poverty and a lack of opportunity had led to large scale emigration to the wealthier north and overseas. The result was an ageing population, closed or struggling businesses and services, abandoned housing and a pervasive feeling of hopelessness.
Welcoming refugees
When Kurdish refugees started to arrive along the coast near Riace in 1998, Lucano along with other locals, imbued in the age-old tradition of hospitality which remains such a strong feature of life in the region, helped to provide shelter. Over the years, as more and more people fleeing persecution, war or hunger arrived, a project was gradually developed in which, with the owners’ permission, abandoned houses were repaired and rented to refugee families. Work and training in the dying local crafts were given to refugees, as well as to an equal number of locals in order to reduce any likelihood of resentment.
The needs of the newcomers gave a fillip to local businesses, made the local school and medical facilities viable again and provided some entirely new jobs, such as teaching Italian, providing advice on various matters and managing accommodation for all the people who came to observe the project in action. The locals were once again able to enjoy a lively and thriving town and the refugees had the dignity of their own homes, work and education.
This ‘Riace Model’, which gained a worldwide reputation, was of course inimical to Salvini, whose political career was based on whipping up hatred of ‘others’ – originally southern Italians and latterly people from the Middle East and Africa. The project was living proof that there was another way to view the refugee crisis, as an opportunity and not as a problem. It was a direct challenge to the right wing populist tenets of Salvini’s party, the Lega. So Salvini thought something had to be done.
Attacking supporters of refugees
Lucano and his colleagues were falsely accused of setting up the scheme as a criminal undertaking, purely for their own gain. The Riace project, which had given so many people a second chance at life, was shut down. A trial took place, at the end of which punitive sentences were handed out, among them over thirteen years’ imprisonment for Lucano.
Justice prevails
The subsequent appeal overturned the original judgement. With detailed reasoning it effectively and thoroughly demolished the ‘evidence’ on which the case had been built. After years of unimaginable stress the defendants were acquitted and their prison sentences cancelled. No one knows how many refugees’ lives were blighted by the closure of the scheme – as well as the ones who were there at the time there were all those who would subsequently have benefitted from it.
Two votes of confidence
Earlier this month Lucano was re-elected mayor of Riace, and a few days later he was elected as a Socialist/Green Alliance Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with 188,000 votes.
Against the bleakness of the chilling slide towards right-wing extremism in Germany, France and Italy, Lucano’s election shines out like a small beacon of justice and humanity. This is indeed a moment for celebration. Lucano can now give new hope to many more people in the tiny town of Riace. In the European parliament he will be able to draw on the reality of his own experience to counter increasingly negative attitudes to migration. Perhaps even in time the seemingly unstoppable uncaring populism we currently face will be seen to have have run its course. We can only hope.
But will Salvini apologise? Probably not worth holding your breath.
Ed: West England Bylines has been reporting the ‘Riace Project’ since 2020. You can read earlier articles here.
We want to hear your views. Please send any comments to editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk
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