by Nick O’Connell
EU Political Analysis

18 February 2020

On Monday, 10 February 2020 a Rome court sentenced 24 people for online comments deemed as hate speech against migrants and public figures. Among the victims of these attacks was former Lampedusa mayor Nicolini, “guilty” of successfully administering the small southern Italian town during a continent-wide humanitarian crisis.

In the eyes of the online proto-fascists, Nicolini should have closed the town’s ports and left thousands stranded at sea.At Migrants of the Mediterranean we are pleased to see a sentence that finally warns of the consequences of online hate mongering.

We are also pleased to learn that parliament has voted to lift Salvini’s parliamentary immunity. He will now face prosecution for abuse of power in response to his 2019 order to close Italy’s ports to its own Coast Guard ship, the Gregoretti, carrying 131 migrants.

The Italian Court system seems to be showing us with this action that it is losing tolerance for comments and actions that further polarize the country and put lives in danger.

At the end of last year, we wrote about the importance of rhetoric, and the close relationship between hate speech and hate crimes. Little has changed since, going to show that words really matter.

They matter because hateful anti-migrant rhetoric emboldens far right groups that would otherwise remain on the fringes of society. Italy’s far right leaders like Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni are some of the most visible examples.

They unapologetically embrace insidious forms of discrimination and racism towards migrants that fire up their electorate and legitimize proto-fascist groups. This has an immediate effect on the people Migrants of the Mediterranean profiles.

Just this week, Richard spoke to our founder Pamela Kerpius about racist comments he has had hurled at him. “Sometimes you shed tears,” Richard said, describing the psychological pain and isolation of living on the margins of Italian society.

The actions—and words—of the far-right have long gone uncontested by Italy’s legal system, despite the clear connection between their messaging and hate crimes.

Between 2017 and 2018 crimes categorized as hateful by Italian courts have quadrupled from 92 to 360. This trend is predicted to worsen.

When Holocaust survivor and Senator Liliana Segre proposed to institute an anti-hate speech committee, she received death threats and was put under security surveillance. This is the level of polarization we see in Italian society.

Hostility towards Segre was amplified after her proposal was criticized by all of Italy’s rightist parties. They claimed it was biased. But defending Italy against racism is an opportunity to strengthen its society––a chance to put humanity before politics. It is not blind partisan bias.

What happened in Italy with the birth of Fascism about a century ago could reemerge again today, and the worrisome polarization of Italian society is a symptom of a people that still fail to fully condemn racism towards the other. In the 1920s, the scapegoats were leftists and minorities, today they are migrants.

We hope the new court convictions are a sign of how the 2020s will not be a replay of last century’s hate-based actions, and that Italians will find courage to stand up to another menacing far right movement.

The decade is still new, so we will look at it through a lens of hope.

It will be up to all of us to ensure anti-migrant and hate-based speech are brought to a halt. At MotM we remain on the frontline, giving voice to the most vulnerable and marginalized when governments can’t do it.

We are committed to creating a narrative based not on hatred and anger but on stories of hope and integration––our only way forward.