Matteo Salvini Speaks in Koblenz

Matteo is the leader of The Northern League. A North Italian separatist group that wants to separate from Southern Italy, as the two areas of radically different cultures and economies. This speech was at the Koblenz Germany gathering of non-Marxist and Eurosceptic politicians, which was held on the day of Trump's inauguration, and that was no accident.

Italian MP 'Blacks Up' in Parliament in Anti-immigration Tirade

Northern League politician blacks up, saying that all white Italians should do the same so as to receive benefits, free housing and preferential treatment African migrants do

Read the Telegraph article here | Nick Squires, Rome | Thursday, January 16, 2014

Anti-immigrant Support Rises as Italian Far Right Makes Big Gains in Poll
TIMES ONLINE: Regional elections see surge in votes for Northern League party, which campaigned on anti-migrant agenda

Final results from Italy's regional and local elections have confirmed a surge in support for the anti-immigrant right, mirroring similar gains recently seen in the Netherlands and France.

With Silvio Berlusconi and his allies taking four regional governorships from the left, Umberto Bossi's Northern League has emerged as the undisputed winner. The League was expected to take 13% of the national vote, up from 8% at the last general election in 2008 when it used a poster of white sheep kicking out a black one.

Bossi's party won two important governorships – Piedmont, the region around Turin, and the Veneto. In the Veneto it received a 10% higher share than the prime minister's Freedom People movement.

The League also continued its expansion into areas outside its Po valley homeland. In "red" Emilia-Romagna it won almost 14%.

The party's success fitted an emerging pattern. Earlier this month the Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, who has compared the Qur'an to Hitler's Mein Kampf, made big gains in local elections. In France Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front won nearly 10% of the vote in regional ballots. >>> John Hooper in Rome | Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Scandal and the Italian Vote

'Haider Is Our Lady Di'
THE GUARDIAN: As the leaders of Europe's far-right parties gather for today's state funeral of Austria's most controversial politician, is European fascism once again on the rise?

In their hundreds they stand in line, waiting to pay tribute to their hero. Girls with iPods, skinheads in leather jackets, elderly women with shopping trollies and tanned athletic types in Prada sunglasses shuffle silently forward.

"We wanted the kids to feel the enormity of the occasion. After all, he is our Lady Di and this is our 9/11," says Anton Krem, 45, who is here to pay his last respects to Jörg Haider, the Austrian rightwing populist politician who died in a drunken, high-speed car crash a week ago and whose coffin sits on a pedestal in the Landhaus, seat of Carinthia's regional parliament, the southern province where he was governor.

An after-work crowd of about 300 makes its way through an avenue of huge wreaths. Everyone from the Chamber of Carinthian Chemists to the regional tourist board has sent a display. Klagenfurt, the state capital, is busy preparing itself for today's ceremony, the most emotional state funeral since that of the last Austrian empress, Zita von Bourbon-Parma, in 1989.

Amid a sea of red candles one teenager has written: "To a great man of the nation who fought for his land. Our hero, our fighter, our sunshine." Another note reads: "Our king of hearts". Slipped in between are pictures of Haider, an orange sweater - the colour of his breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria party (BZO) - draped over his shoulders, glass of beer in hand; another shows the maverick fascist bungee jumping off a bridge.

Behind the scenes, functionaries and volunteers have been working around the clock sending invitations. Austria's political elite are expected to attend tomorrow. But the 50,000 mourners are also expected to include Belgian nationalist Filip Dewinter, French extremist Jean-Marie le Pen, Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the Italian wartime fascist leader, Umberto Bossi from Italy's Northern League, Swiss industrialist Christoph Blocher, and a handful of Waffen-SS veterans, whom Haider once described as "men of character". Younger far-right figures have also hinted they will turn up, though Austrian intelligence is on alert to turn away groups of skinheads or neo-fascists, to stop the event turning into a rally.

With state broadcaster ORF planning live coverage, President Heinz Fischer, who will give the main speech, and other politicians have asked for assurances that they will not appear in the same frames as anyone from the far right. "They realise it could get very embarrassing," says Hans Rauscher, veteran writer for Der Standard newspaper.

The fear gripping the elite shows the extent to which Haider managed to impose himself on Austria's political scene, becoming a figurehead for an array of far-right European groups. Particularly at such a sensitive economic moment, when parallels with 1929 and the great depression are drawn every day, the fear is that the extreme right may seek to exploit the symbolic power of such a gathering. >>> Kate Connolly | October 18, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Italy: Northern League Seeks to Block the Construction of Mosques
WORLD NET DAILY: Italy is fighting a rapidly increasing Muslim presence by introducing a bill to block construction of Islamic mosques and prohibit minarets, or prayer watchtowers, and loudspeaker chants.

Italy's Northern League, a political movement that is part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition, introduced the legislation. According to a Financial Times report, Northern League Chief of Deputies Roberto Cota will present the bill to parliament next week.

The proposal will also require mosques to be at least one kilometer away from nearby churches, and sermons must be conducted in Italian rather than Arabic.

Critics say the bill will face insurmountable challenges because it violates constitutional rights and lacks support from Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party and the National Alliance. However, the Catholic UDC Party supports the bill. Finally, someone says: No new mosques!: Party seeks to ban prayer towers, loudspeaker chants, Arabic sermons >>> WorldNetDaily | August 28, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)

Italy Destroys Mosque in Verona
ROME: The Italian government got much tougher on illegal immigrants lately. It seems it is also getting tough on Islam. The Northern League, which has four ministers in Silvio Berlusconi’s newly-formed government, has made a start on a crackdown: It has razed a mosque in Verona.

"I never felt at ease with this mosque," said Elisonder Antonneli, the head of Verona city council.

"This place will be turned into a park and a car parking space and will be named after Oriana Fallaci." Fallaci was famous for her stand against Islam, and fearless in airing her views. She died in 2006.

Abu Shwaima, the Muslim leader said Muslims in the city of Verona used to find spiritual comfort at that mosque.

"We want to tell the Muslim world that mosques' construction in Italy is almost a mission impossible. Except for the Milan-based Islamic Center and the Rome mosque, there are no real mosques in Italy." He said: "We believe the life of Italian Muslims will get more complicated."

There are 20,000 Muslims in Verona, and 1.2 million in Italy as a whole, including 20,000 Italian converts to the faith.

Hat tip: Sons of Apes and Pigs and Islam Online

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

The Rise of Neo-Fascism in Europe No Light Matter
TURKISH DAILY NEWS: There is a lot of talk in Europe about how “Turkey should reckon with its past and draw the necessary lessons.”

There is also a lot of focus in Europe presently on where Turkey is headed politically. Both questions are valid. But looking at the rise of neo-fascism, in a continent where such things should have long been buried in the past, one cannot help but ask the same questions about Europe as well.

Have Europeans really reckoned with their past and drawn the necessary lessons? Evidence is mounting to suggest that they have not. Just look at Gianni Alemanno, the newly elected mayor of Rome, who is also a “darling” of Italy's new Prime Minister, the reelected and theatrical – not to mention “testosterone-driven” – Silvio Berlusconi.

Alemanno the neo-fascist

Alemanno is a firebrand neo-fascist and he is proud of it. Not surprisingly his election was celebrated by hundreds of supporters raising their arms in the fascist salute and chanting "Duce! Duce!” As for Prime Minister Berlusconi – who appears to be consciously mimicking Mussolini at times – he declared after Alemanno's election that they were “the new Falange," in a reference to the Spanish fascist party founded in the 1930s.

Then there is Umberto Bossi, the leader of the anti-immigration Northern League, who is himself a fascist and with whom Berlusconi is due to form a government. To understand what Bossi is made of it is enough to note his remarks earlier this week.

Indicating that immigrants had to be hunted out, he said, according to press reports, "We have no fear of taking things to the piazzas. We have 300,000 martyrs ready to come down from the mountains. Our rifles are always smoking." The Rise of Neo-Fascism in Europe No Light Matter >>> By Semih İDİZ | May 2, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Berlusconi Joins Forces with the Northern League
The Northern league’s campaign poster: "They suffered immigration: Now they live in reserves."
Read the story HERE

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)