How has the Italian government acted?
Critics say Silvio Berlusconi, the recently re-elected Italian prime minister, has exploited anti-Roma feeling for political ends. His election campaign promised a severe clampdown on “Roma, clandestine immigrants and criminals” and his coalition’s candidate for mayor of Rome pledged the expulsion of “20,000 nomads and immigrants who have broken the law”. Other politicians have gone further. The head of the rightwing, anti-immigrant Northern League party, Umberto Bossi, argued the attack on the Naples camp was understandable, saying: “People are going to do what the political class cannot.
