There is a pattern that is dangerously running through Europe: there is crime, usually heinous and seemingly unprovoked, usually of minors at the hands of other minors; North African immigrants are blamed beyond the truth of the news; and racial hatred is unleashed and brooding in Western societies. Fake news is artfully fed on social media by the extreme political right.
It happened in Britain, after the Southampton stabbing, and the ensuing mass riots shocked the country. It happened in a weaker form in Spain, where the incomprehensible murder of a young boy in Toledo triggered the same pattern. Police detained a boy from Madrid with psychiatric problems but on social media blamed a group of Africans who had recently arrived in the murder area. So far no mass chaos but the story is unfolding and the concern is that soon the pattern may land in Italy with unpredictable consequences.
In our country before the 2018 politics, the terrible murder of the very young Pamela in the Marche region became a case. There the Nigerian Oseghale ended up in prison for life, and it is not a fake, but hot on the heels, already at the stage of suspicion, Traini fired on a group of immigrants. The issue today, however, is in my opinion different: there is not only the issue of an ideological and non-deontological reading of the news, but there is a sociological issue. The younger generation in Europe is giving a racist and far-right response to the phenomenon of large-scale immigration. Matter in which continental policies are selfish and without vision. This is a decisive element of the transformation of our societies in the coming years. Young people are personally involved, they are frightened, concerned, and sensitive to propaganda instrumentalization.
Even the recent vote, beyond parliamentary majorities, says there is a growing impatience in Europe looking to the right with various cultural and party outcomes. In Germany Afd is the second largest party, in France Le Pen does not rule because of Macron’s wizardry, but the Rassemblement is in absolute votes the leading party. And in Italy? Meloni’s party, first in the European elections, beyond dangerous nostalgia brought to the fore by Fanpage’s ideological investigations, is far from these extremisms. But Italian society is restless and the big cities, Milan in the lead with the story of the North African baby gangs, are a powder keg.
The article The snake egg comes from TheNewyorker.
