Italian Town Erects Signs Warning Only People Respecting Its Christian Culture Will Be Welcome

One of the new signs erected in Pontoglio

THE TELEGRAPH: Signs, erected outside the town in Lombardy, criticised as racist and discriminatory

An Italian town has been accused of racism after erecting signs warning that only people who respect its “Christian traditions” are welcome.

The signs were put up this week outside Pontoglio, near Brescia in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, by its centre-Right council.

They declared the town, known in local dialect as Pontoi, to be a beacon of “Western culture and deep Christian traditions” and warned: “Those who do not intend to respect local culture and traditions are invited to stay away.”

Some residents branded the signs “racist” and “medieval”, who called for them to be taken down immediately.

The panels delivered a particularly hostile message to the town’s large foreign population. Of its 7,000 inhabitants, 1,160 or 16 per cent are foreign-born and many of them are Muslim.

They include 238 Albanians, 203 Moroccans, 192 Romanians and 150 Indians, many of whom have lived in Pontoglio for years and have families and regular jobs. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Friday, December 18, 2015