Silvio Berlusconi Attacks Italy's 'Gypsy-loving' Left-wing

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Silvio Berlusconi has accused Italy's left-wing opposition of wanting to turn his hometown of Milan into a "gypsy camp" as the country geared up for a second round of local elections.

"Milan cannot turn into an Islamic city, a 'gypsyopolis' full of Roma camps besieged by foreigners to whom the left wants to give the right to vote," Mr Berlusconi said on his People of Freedom party website.

In the first round of elections last week the centre-left candidate in Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, defied expectations to win 48 per cent, leaving the centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti facing a run-off with only 41.6 per cent.

Mr Berlusconi told voters in the city where he was born and made his fortune that they should support Ms Moratti in the second round scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

"Milan is ... one of the most important capitals in Europe in terms of intelligence, creativity and entrepreneurialism," he said.

"A city like this will surely not want to hand itself over to the extreme left with the risk of becoming a disorderly, chaotic and unsafe city." » | Monday, May 23, 2011

Sarkozy’s Crackdown on Gipsies Begins
THE TELEGRAPH: French police forcibly moved more than 100 gipsies from an illegal squatter camp as the authorities launched a campaign ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy to clear up encampments.

Gipsies, who have just been evicted, talk to a policeman in Saint-Etienne. Photo: The Telegraph
Officers moved in before dawn to seal off the squatter camp, where the local authorities had installed water standpipes and chemical lavatories near the central city of Saint Etienne. The operation took several hours.

The French president announced tough new security measures last month that included plans to dismantle 300 unauthorised camps in three months.

In addition to the destruction of camps, a squad of tax inspectors has been set up to target hidden wealth in the community. Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, has raised suspicions over the owners of “caravans pulled by certain powerful cars”.

Shortly after launching his measures aimed at gipsies, Mr Sarkozy announced plans to target members of other minority groups, promising to strip French nationality from certain categories of foreign-born criminals. >>> | Friday, August 06, 2010

Germany Still Wrestles with Adolf Hitler’s Legacy
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany is going through an unprecedented wave of self-recrimination as it marks the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

Despite the rapidly decreasing number of people who were alive during the Nazi era, this week, Bernd Neumann, the German minister of culture, announced that building would start on two new memorials.

One will honour the gipsies deported to their deaths. The other, costing £400,000, will feature a video of gay men and lesbians kissing, in a commemoration of the thousands of homosexuals eliminated by a regime that considered them an aberration.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in central Berlin, consisting of 2,711 grey pillars, is in need of repair which will cost several hundred thousands pounds.

As Germany marks the anniversary today of Hitler and the Nazi party taking power in Germany, some have questioned whether so many memorials cloud personal remembrance. Germany still wrestles with Adolf Hitler's legacy >>> By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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