Lampedusa votes for lega nord

[Strengthandhonour]

Italy's deep south flies flag of independent north
LAMPEDUSA, Italy (Reuters) - When Angela Maraventano took more than 20 percent of the vote for the separatist Northern League party in local and European elections in Italy's southernmost constituency, she considered it a moral victory.
Although her island home of Lampedusa is nearer Africa than the rest of Italy, she shares the League's belief that the south is run is by corrupt and incompetent politicians and would rather be independent or ruled by the north.
"I'm not crazy," she said in an interview in her mother's restaurant overlooking Lampedusa's main harbour, which in recent years has become the landing point for one of Europe's most notorious illegal immigration routes.
Each year, some 8,000 immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East land in Lampedusa, which has 5,000 inhabitants and is just 113 km (70 miles) from Tunisia.
The Northern League's tough anti-immigration stance is the main reason the party, formed in the wealthy manufacturing towns at the foot of the Alps in the 1990s, has gained support in this arid, rocky outcrop which lives on fish and tourism.
The League's leader Umberto Bossi has said Italy should stop rescuing immigrants from the sea and bringing them to Lampedusa where they can apply for refugee status. Instead, he recommends firing on their rickety boats to force them back to Africa.
Maraventano said he has a point. "This is a war," she said, but then relented, saying the navy should only shoot at boats harbouring suicide bombers -- something that has never happened.
The 41-year-old proudly shows a double page picture of herself with Bossi at a League convention in an old copy of celebrity gossip magazine Gente.
They are both sporting the party's trademark green scarves with the logo of 'Padania' -- the name the League gave to the northern regions that they believe are culturally and economically distinct from southern Italy.
"TAKE CARE OF YOUR HOME"
Many of the immigrants who reach Lampedusa are eventually transferred to Sicily, 330 km (200 miles) to the north, from where they gradually drift to Italy's wealthy north in search of jobs and a future.
While Bossi worries about immigrants taking work away from northerners, Maraventano is concerned that they are frightening off well-heeled visitors to the island, which has built up a lucrative following among sun-worshippers and scuba divers.
"The image of Lampedusa has been destroyed," she said. Her mother, Giuseppina Maggiore, who cooks traditional Lampedusan fish dishes at the family-run restaurant, agreed.
"You must write that Lampedusa is a beautiful island. People should come here, you eat well, the beaches are beautiful. There are no clandestini (illegal immigrants). You have to tell them."
It was not just the League's hardline stance on immigration that persuaded Maraventano to pick up the banner of Padania, she also supports the party's ultimate goal of splitting the richer north away from the poorer south.
"Everyone should take care of their own home, like what used to happen within families. If the north functions and the south doesn't and the south has to live on handouts, it's stupid."
LOOKING NORTH
Maraventano says she converted to the League when she realised none of the more traditional parties had solutions for Lampedusa's problems.
The island lacks its own drinking water, the tourism and fishing economies only function for part of the year and public services are scratchy.
Six years ago, Maraventano was appalled when a 60-year-old carpenter died of a heart attack that the local health facilities were unable to deal with.
"He died like a dog. It's not possible that someone can die just because there are no social services."
When she contacted the various parties for support in improving the island's lot, only the League replied.
Maraventano's dream is to see Lampedusa free of the regional government of Sicily, the national government in Rome and the European Union authorities based in Brussels.
"We have always been isolated. We are oppressed by the Sicilian system," she said of the nearby island on Italy's toe which for many Italians is the very definition of the south but for Lampedusa seems far to the north.
"The perfect future would be to change local government -- maybe even to come under the jurisdiction of Bergamo," she said, referring to a League stronghold, a town far away at the other end of Italy in the alpine foothills.

source: http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle....k/featuresNews

[Ederico]

Secondo me invece è pazza. Quelli della Lega Nord, anche se concordo con alcune delle loro idee, la considerano inferiore probabilmente. Perché non trasferire Lampedusa sotto la giurisdizione della Republica di Malta?