Konstanz/Lodi/Palermo (gro) Italien will neuerdings seine Häfen sperren für Schiffe 
nichtstaatlicher Hilfsorganisationen, die ihre aufgesammelten Flüchtlinge bitteschön anderswo ausladen sollen. On the other side, you can see Leoluca Orlando, 70, (center), elected mayor of Palermo for the fifth time a few weeks ago, rushing from the town hall, the Palazzo delle Aquile, to the port of the Sicilian metropolis, to do his first official act Re-elected to greet over 528 refugees who have been rescued from the African sea off Libya.
What is typically Italian?
It is understandable that in Konstanz on Lake Constance, a border town in which hundreds are volunteering to help refugees, reluctance arises when Italy partially closes its ports for organized refugee rescuers. And then there is also a new mayor in the twin town of Lodi, who belongs to the “xenophobic Lega Nord”! The Linke Liste Konstanz (LLK) asked the Konstanz city administration two weeks after this vote at the beginning of June to let Lodi know that the election of Sara Casanova would “damage the town twinning”. What’s going on in Italy and in the Lombard twin city? Is there a new shift to the right? Or does Leoluca Orlando embody the real Italy?
A top civil servant fixes a lot
Fortunately (and to be fair!) Claus-This Shepherd, the man responsible for town twinning in the Konstanz town hall, was given the opportunity to correct the image of a right-wing populist (Lodigian) communal regime and to bring the peculiarities of the Italian political situation closer to the Left List. Claus-Dieter Hirt did not forget to mention that Alberto Segalini was once a member of the Lega Nord, head of the city of Lodi. The respected doctor is a staunch European. Hardly any mayor did as much for the partnership with Konstanz during his tenure as Segalini, says Claus-Dieter Hirt, even though he only headed the city of Lodi for a good two years (from the end of 1993 to the end of 1995).
The aim was to split off northern Italy
Die Lega Nord entstand Ende der achtziger Jahre aus der Lega Lombarda. The Lega Nord emerged from the Lega Lombarda at the end of the 1980s. The political goal was the separation of northern Italy from the “underdeveloped and mafia-infested” regions of the southern parts of the country. The political rejection was not aimed at foreigners but the “Terroni” of the south, who supposedly “eat up” the hard-earned tax money of the hard-working northern Italians. Later on, a new tax system and a decentralization of the state were added to the political goals: The federal government (Rome) should give the regions more rights and more independence, comparable to the federal states in Germany.
No violent attacks
The right-wing populist Lega Nord has repeatedly behaved in a xenophobic manner. But in contrast to Germany, for example, there are hardly any xenophobic attacks or arson to damage accommodation for foreigners in Italy. Even in cities in the north, some neighborhoods are so “black” that you might think you have lost your way in an African colony. The large, traditional markets of the south, especially in Naples and Palermo, would have long since been decimated or disappeared if the arduous market business had not long since been taken over by many thousands of Pakistani and families from Bangladesh or North Africa. And in every bigger city there is a (mostly steadily growing) “Chinatown”.
Tolerance and helpfulness in the genes
This colourfulness is attractive. It could arise primarily from the fact that tolerance and that “live and let life”, as well as a constant willingness to help, are in the blood of the Italians of the South, so to speak, which also stems from the fundamental mistrust of all authorities. For 3000 years, ever changing masters and high cultures, Phoenicians, Greeks, Elymers who were looking for their new Troy, Romans who made the island the granary of their gigantic empire, Byzantines, Normans, the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, the House of Anjou, the Aragonese and finally the Spanish branch of the Bourbons, the Holy Inquisition – they have all mixed in with the people, have left – some cruel – traces that can still be felt, viewed, touched and tasted, especially in Sicily, to this day.
The coast is 7500 kilometers long
It is no wonder that many refugees get stuck in Italy. Also because of the mild climate. The number of unreported cases is high. Even so many “hotspots” won’t be able to change much in the future. A few hundred thousand refugees are no longer important. Italy can do it. Somehow. People in the country with its 7500 kilometers of coastline (from Paris to New York are “only” about 3800 kilometers as the crow flies) are justifiably angry, especially because the European Union has been the country of Italy with the refugee problem for almost 20 years or less alone.