Family and the Disabled Minister Lorenzo Fontana arrives for the oath before the President of the Republic, June 1, 2018. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved.
This August in Italy, using his loudspeaker, a train conductor ordered “gypsies and molesters” to get off the train on the grounds that they had been “pissing off” the passengers. His voice – that of a public official – was an echo, the direct and clear-cut implementation, of Minister Salvini’s voice, who a few weeks before, had announced his intention of opening up a file on the Roma people, regretting having “to keep” the ones holding Italian citizenship. On this occasion, Matteo Salvini promptly returned the favour on his Facebook page, publicly naming the passenger who had reported the discriminatory actions of the train conducter and calling for support for the official. As a result, the passenger received more than 50,000 sarcastic, scathing and menacing messages.
