Lollobrigida: stop the “ethnic replacement”. Schlein: he is a supremacist – Corriere.it

«No to ethnic substitution, we must think of the Italy of the day after tomorrow by encouraging births”. The affirmation of the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, provokes the unanimous uprising of the oppositions. “Words unworthy of a minister, which take us back to the 1930s: they have the flavor of white supremacy”, the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, is indignant as she participates in the protest against the Cutro decree organized by associations and NGOs.

Lollobrigida speaks at the Cisal congress and addresses the issue of the decline demographic by relating it to that of migratory flows. In these terms: «We cannot give up on the idea of ​​ethnic replacement: Italians have fewer children and we replace them with someone else. That’s not the way.” To combat the falling birth rate, it is necessary to give opportunities to Italian female workers, improving social services. «The regions where there is less welfare – continues the minister of FdI – see a much more serious demographic decline than the others. We support young couples to find a job. We need to build a welfare system to allow people to work and have a family». The “resource of migrants should be drawn upon after the internal demand for work has been exhausted”.

But the reference to ethnic substitution, referred to in many conspiracy theories in far-right circles, it immediately provokes almost unanimous outrage in the minority. After defining Lollobrigida’s words “disgusting”, Schlein urges “Giorgia Meloni to forcefully distance herself from these statements made on the day when President Mattarella is visiting Auschwitz”. From the same square, the vice presidents of the Cinquestelle group of the Chamber and Senate, Vittoria Baldino and Alessandra Maiorino define the sentences as “bewildering and disgusting” and the entire reflection as “vulgar racist propaganda”. The vice president of the Senate Mariolina Castellone (M5S) is sarcastic: «Minister Lollobrigida does not want to “surrender to ethnic substitution”, while her colleague Giorgetti writes in the Def that Italy needs 300,000 migrants a year, until 2070» . Lapidary Romano Prodi: «Brutal words». Also alarmed is Carlo Calenda, leader of Action, who warns of the “dangerous involution of Italy”. According to Riccardo Magi, secretary of +Europa, Lollobrigida “relaunches the theory of race”. Angelo Bonelli of the Verdi fears “the country’s addiction to the words of the extreme right pronounced by the minister”.

Invested by the river of protests, Lollobrigida tries to correct it with a video about social, but actually reiterates the concept. Prima accuses “the left without arguments” of “raising a media fuss”. He then defends the government’s line: “All ethnic groups are worthy of respect, including ours which we intend to defend”.

In the Senate, the Constitutional Affairs commission yesterday failed to conclude the examination of the Cutro decree, whose discussion in the Chamber has consequently been postponed to today with limited times. A composition is still being sought between the League, which after the agreement on the restriction of the institution of special protection, does not give up further tightening through its amendments and puts pressure on the premier, and Palazzo Chigi. In the meantime, a signal is coming from the EU Commission: “Europe is discussing possible other emergency financing measures with Italy to manage migratory flows”, announced Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn.