QUITALY
How a brutal murder allegedly carried out by an illegal immigrant and a neo-nazi’s gun rampage could see Italy leave the EU
The attack has thrust Macerata into the spotlight as an unwitting symbol of Italy’s deepening immigration crisis
LOCALS in the usually idyllic Italian hilltop town of Macerata call their home an “island of happiness”.
It is famed for its lasagne, and its honey-coloured medieval walls echo with the laughter of local university students and the annual opera festival.
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But laughter is rare today. Just weeks ago this charming town of nearly 42,000 took on a much more sinister reputation after a beautiful Italian teenager was murdered and dismembered — allegedly by an illegal immigrant.
The attack thrust Macerata into the spotlight as an unwitting symbol of Italy’s deepening immigration crisis.
It is a crisis that will define this Sunday’s general election, which many believe could usher in a new anti-immigration government. “Enough is enough,” say the people.
Calls for Italy to quit the EU are also growing, although critics of “Quitaly” warn the country’s £2trillion debts mean it could not withstand the economic aftershock.
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The dismembered body of drug user Pamela Mastropietro, 18, was found stuffed into two suitcases, in a ditch in countryside near Macerata on January 31 this year.
Young Nigerian immigrant Innocent Oseghale was held on suspicion of murder.
Three other Nigerians are also under investigation in connection with the slaying.
Pamela’s mum, Alessandra Verni, told Italian TV: “I’m awake at night thinking of her. I wonder if she was tortured or raped. The newspapers wrote that her body was cut into 20 pieces. I keep thinking where — in which points did they cut her.”
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But mayhem soon followed.
On February 4, shaven-headed neo-Nazi Luca Traini, 28, went on a “revenge” drive-by shooting spree targeting innocent African migrants walking in Macerata.
The wounded included five men and one woman, from Ghana, Mali and Nigeria.
Police later wrestled Traini to the ground on the steps of the town’s fascist-era war memorial, with the tricolour Italian flag draped over his shoulders. He was shouting: “Long Live Italy” and “Italy for Italians”.
At his greengrocer’s opposite the memorial, Leonardo Splendiani, 23, tells me: “He did the fascist salute then police arrested him. There is tension now and politicians from the Left and Right are using what happened to promote their policies.”
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As a Left-leaning town, Macerata, 150 miles north of Rome, has long welcomed newcomers — but now many locals feel their country’s generosity has reached its limit. More than 620,000 migrants have poured into Italy in the past four years, straining the debt-ridden economy.
In May 2013, just four per cent of Italians saw immigration as one of their two key issues. By November 2017, the figure was 33 per cent.
Traini was a former candidate for the Northern League — whose leader Matteo Salvini said of the alleged Nigerian killer on Facebook: “What was this maggot still doing in Italy? He wasn’t fleeing war — he brought war to Italy.”
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After the revenge shootings, Salvini acknowledged “violence is never the solution”, and blamed “out-of-control migration” for “chaos, rage, social clashes”. But his party, rebranded as The League to appeal to southern Italians, will potentially join a Right-wing coalition government after the election on Sunday as Italy lurches to the Right amid immigration fears.
Leading that alliance — currently polling a collective 37.5 per cent of the vote — will be Forza Italia, former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right party. He has called migrants “a social time bomb” and wants to expel 600,000, although he cannot stand for elected office because he is a convicted tax fraudster.
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Two other allied Right-wing parties are likely to join him and The League — Brothers of Italy, a group with fascist origins, and a small conservative party We Back Italy.
If Berlusconi’s bloc fails to win 40 per cent of the vote, to form a majority government, it would have to do a deal with an opposition party.
This might mean him ditching his allies in The League and forming a grand coalition with the centre-Left Democratic Party, an outcome pundits are tipping.
But around 35 per cent of voters are undecided or plan to abstain.
Many in Macerata complain not so much about the migrants themselves, as policies they say do little to aid effective integration.
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Father Alberto Forconi, 74, a priest at 16th Century Santa Croce Catholic Church where migrants worship, described the tragedies in Macerata as “a real awakening”. He said earlier generations of migrants had integrated well but that was no longer the case — with many now using Italy and its easily accessible shores as a spring-board to reach Britain and other destinations in northern Europe.
“They don’t work, don’t speak the language, don’t know the laws or the culture,” he said. “They’re like birds in the trees. They haven’t landed in our society.”
Father Eugene Offor, 47, originally from Nigeria, is based at the San Donato Church in nearby Montefano and preaches to a 70-strong congregation of migrants on Sundays — but now does so under a police guard.
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“We are human beings,” he tells me. “Of course people are scared. Pamela’s murder provoked a lot of people. Not everyone is Christian and has a forgiving spirit.”
He tried to organise a vigil in Macerata for Pamela but had to cancel because it was planned for when Traini went on the rampage
“The incidents happened at a critical moment in the election campaign which the parties are now using to get votes,” he said.
There is little doubt politicians are tapping into public opinion.
Even before the Macerata carnage, a poll in the La Repubblica newspaper found 40 per cent of Italians “strongly or very strongly” agree migrants represent “a danger to public order”.
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In the Nino cafe, Josep Cozzi, 70, breaks off from checking his lottery numbers to tell me: “There’s been too much immigration. Italians have reached their limits.” The retired air force security guard added: “I’m not against immigration if it’s people fleeing wars — you have a responsibility to help. But that only applies to a small minority.
“The rest come without papers and are lying — they just want to live in a more comfortable country. Most seem to be men aged 20 to 30 who left families behind. They should have stayed and fought for their families.”
Dad-of-one Giuseppe Caputo, 68, said: “After Pamela’s murder I felt powerless and unsafe. We don’t know who many of the illegal immigrants are. There is no integration, most are just here for easy money.
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“But we don’t have enough jobs for our own, let alone the migrants.”
Like many I speak to, the retired railway guard has nothing good word to say about Brussels, which is viewed with contempt by many here.
They think the EU has left them high and dry, closing borders in Austria, Switzerland and France and leaving them to deal alone with the migrant crisis.
As a result, Italy’s centre-Left Democratic Party, the only party wanting an ever-closer EU, is polling just 23 per cent of the vote.
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Caputo says he is voting for the eurosceptic and “anti-politics” Five Star Movement. Formed by larger- than-life former stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo, Five Star is likely to be the biggest party after the election. It is polling 28 per cent of the vote.
“When we scrapped the Italian lira and got the euro, prices doubled but salaries stayed the same,” he said. “We should never have gone into Europe.”
Having a coffee at a town bar, Simonetta Sargenti, 54, and Silvia Luchetti, 52, both want Quitaly. “We had twice as much buying power with the lira,” telecom firm worker Silvia said. “We want to follow Britain out.”
Video of injured victim being stretchered into ambulance after gunman opens fire in Italian city of Macerata
Back at San Donato Church, Father Offor jokes about how hard it is for Africans to adjust to Europe’s cold weather. Pulling off his woolly hat to be photographed, he adds: “People would much rather stay in Africa with their families than risk their lives coming to Europe. But there is much injustice, war and hunger.
“Europe’s politicians needs to solve the root causes of migration if they want to stop people coming.”
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