Abstract
Xenophobic arguments have long been at the center of the political discourse of the Lega party in Italy, nonetheless Matteo Salvini, the new leader, capitalizing on diffused Romaphobia, placed Roma people at the center of his political discourse, institutionalizing the “Camp visit” as an electoral event. Through the analysis of eight consecutive electoral campaigns, in a six year period, mixing computer-based quantitative and qualitative content analysis and framing analysis, this study aims to display how Roma communities are portrayed in Matteo Salvini’s discourse. The study describes how “Gypsies” are framed as a threat to society and how the proposed solution—a bulldozer to raze all of the camps to the ground—is presented as the only option. The paper concludes that representing Roma as an “enemy” that “lives among us”, proves to be the ideal tool to strengthen the “us versus them” tension, characteristic of populist discourse.
Highlights
IntroductionAcknowledging that the term is used as a homogenizing category for highly heterogeneous populations (Tremlett et al 2017), there is a wide consensus on the fact that Roma are one of the most marginalized groups in Europe, facing deep social problems and wide-ranging discrimination, all of which are interrelated and create a vicious circle of social exclusion (McGarry 2017)
The Council of Europe, in an effort to harmonize the terminology used in its political documents, apply “Roma”—first chosen at the inaugural World Romani Congress held in London in 1971—as an umbrella term that includes “Roma, Sinti, Travellers, Ashkali, Manush, Jenische, Kaldaresh and Kalé”
Roma inclusion has become the flagship of inclusion policies at the European level (Brüggemann and Friedman 2017)
Summary
Acknowledging that the term is used as a homogenizing category for highly heterogeneous populations (Tremlett et al 2017), there is a wide consensus on the fact that Roma are one of the most marginalized groups in Europe, facing deep social problems and wide-ranging discrimination, all of which are interrelated and create a vicious circle of social exclusion (McGarry 2017). After promoting the “Roma Decade 2005–2015”—a cooperative international effort to change the lives of Roma in Europe, adopted by twelve European governments, supported by the European Commission, Open Society Institute, the World Bank, Council of Europe, UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR and European Roma organizations, the EC developed the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (2011), as a response to the controversial evictions and expulsions by France and Italy in 2010, together with a wide range of initiatives against discrimination, such as, for example, the Roma Inclusion Task Force and the CAHROM
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