The Rise of the Nativists in Italy

An article in The New York Times today sheds light on the alarming degree to which, in Italy, Berlusconi's political fortunes are tied to the hard-right Northern League. They seem to be an odd bunch: fond of quasi-pagan rituals (pouring waters from the head of the Po River into the Venetian Lagoon - why, exactly?), and of crypto-Celtic iconography that's just plain weird, to say nothing of historically rootless.

While they may be giving voice to somewhat legitimate (or at least au courant) grievances - e.g., concerning immigration and the chronic financial reliance of the poor south to the rich north - they seem to have a passion for crude gestures, if not outright thuggery. Here's a particularly galling little number:

It is openly hostile to illegal immigration, an increasingly loud theme both in Italy and Europe. One Northern League deputy provocatively threw a pig’s head on the ground where a mosque was planned, defiling the lot.

That's rather startling, no? These jackanapes are power brokers?

And the non sequitur in that sentence from the Times is a bit too kind: that gross little gesture didn't display just hostility to illegal immigration, but to an entire religion and its adherents (whether legally present, illegally present, or indeed nowhere near Italy at all).