Matteo Salvini: “I Want to Govern in Order to Control Immigration”

The following video shows an an encounter between the Italian press and Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Lega Nord. Mr. Salvini is expected to become the next prime minister after elections on March 4, as part of a coalition with Forza Italia (Silvio Berlusconi) and Fratelli d’Italia (Giorgia Meloni).

In this clip Mr. Salvini gives his opinions about illegal immigrants, mosques, and Islam. The mention of “Pamela” is a reference to a woman who was recently murdered and dismembered by a Nigerian immigrant. “Traini” refers to a neo-Nazi who shot up a group of immigrants in reaction to the murder of Pamela Mastropietro.

Many thanks to Elle Bowlly for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:49   If the Nigerian man under investigation for the murder of Pamela [Mastropietro]
00:53   gets sentenced to four years of imprisonment, he won’t even see jail.
00:57   According to any sane person, does this aid peace, serenity and co-existence
01:03   or does it lead to social conflict? I condemn any type of senseless violence,
01:09   but I also condemn this government which perhaps actually seeks out this violence.
01:13   Perhaps the Democratic Party is in need of covering its nothingness
01:16   by trying to get a reaction out of Italians. And to approve a “thief-saving” [new
01:20   penitentiary reform] and “jail-emptying” amendment in such a time as this seems to me
01:24   to be truly foolish and irresponsible. —But if you blame [Luca] Traini’s acts
01:29   on this government’s immigration policies…isn’t this condoning…
01:33   Responsibility is always a personal matter. You don’t go out on the streets
01:36   to assault, hit, threaten or shoot people who are passing by, full stop. —You’re saying
01:39   out-of-control immigration leads to social clash? —Yes, I’ve said this for years.
01:43   —Isn’t this just an attempt to exploit fear? —No, it’s an attempt to solve problems
01:47   and throw water on fire. If there were no illegals dealing drugs on our streets,
01:54   we’d have fewer crimes and fewer problems, obviously. I want to solve problems.
01:58   I take notice of the fact that recent governments’ immigration policies have
02:02   multiplied these problems. —So that makes people go out and shoot on the streets?
02:06   I mean, what’s the link, in your opinion? —Maybe I don’t speak Italian very well.
02:10   Watch my lips: it’s not correct, just or humane. It’s criminal to assault, hit, beat up,
02:18   threaten or shoot people passing by on the street, full stop, new paragraph.
02:23   —And what do the government’s policies have to do with it? —Full stop, new paragraph.
02:28   A conviction is on the way. Full stop, new paragraph. Phrase number two:
02:32   Does out-of-control immigration aid social peace or does it lead to social conflict, question
02:38   mark? Phrase number three: other than filling jails, out-of-control immigration risks to
02:45   trigger a violent response (though never justified) because the matter should be controlled.
02:51   I want to govern in order to control immigration. —And to close mosques? Isn’t this why
02:55   you’re here? —And to close mosques…illegal mosques. I want to know who’s financing
03:02   them and who’s behind them, where the money comes from, who preaches and what
03:05   he preaches. Because it’s a matter of fact that a literal interpretation of the Quran…
03:11   (which unfortunately isn’t a text subject to interpretation, as in other religions, anyway)…
03:16   But it’s the word of the prophet. A woman is worth less than a man, Islamic law supersedes
03:22   Italian law and freedom of thought is limited by what the Quran provides for.
03:27   Therefore, I don’t want people settling in my house who believe that a woman
03:31   is worth less than a man. —Art.19 of the Constitution is for freedom of religion for everyone.
03:39   —Yes, I repeat. However, I’ve never had problems with freedom of religion for anyone.
03:44   One can freely be Christian, Jew, Waldensian, Buddhist, Protestant…
03:48   The problem with Islam is that it is a law, not a religion. Because they impose laws in the
03:54   name of a god which I think are incompatible with our values, rights and freedoms.
03:59   —What about this specific mosque, which is in a somewhat disgusting area anyway?
04:04   —Well, if there’s a fundamentalist Islamic regime behind them, financing them…
04:10   Why do I have to have a settlement from an extremist Islamic country in the heart of Umbria?
04:17   Which leads to… —Do you know that for a fact? —There are funds from Qatar.
04:21   It’s no mystery. I don’t have intelligence service data. I told Berlusconi “no” on
04:26   condoning illegal constructions, and I reiterate “no” on initiatives of this kind
04:32   (for which many open investigations are currently going on).
 

16 thoughts on “Matteo Salvini: “I Want to Govern in Order to Control Immigration”

  1. The EU is going to become an interesting place if this guy makes it. Italy is pretty central to the functioning of that illegal political construct.

    If Italy exits, Spain, Portugal and Greece will soon follow.

    But we have heard politicians promise these things before, so …

  2. For who understand italian this journalist is a typical mainstream leftard. He doesn’t listen to the answers but he continuously implies false claiming, to make Salvini looks like a nazi/fascist/stupid… Salvini spoke very well. This kind of interviews are like insults to the interviewed, the journalist try really hard to have an emotional reaction so they can cut and reassemble later in the studios and print all the typical nonsense of mainstream media.

  3. Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia — then Austria – then Italy – well, good news for a change.

    Scandinavia and California (that was for fun) – hopeless.

    Netherlands – possible.

    UK – doubt it but Brexit may help

    France and Germany? Well, I am a pessimist on these two, but would love to be surprised.

      • Old California may be hopeless, but New California might just be the thing.

        Paul Preston of Agenda 21 Radio is spearheading a campaign to split the Golden State into two, separating the rural, conservative counties from the coastal, Liberal Left counties. They made a declaration of independence this January 15th patterned after the original American Declaration of Independence and are reading one grievance a week for forty weeks. One of the grievances is that the U.S. Constitution guarantees each state have a republican form of government and they contend that this is no longer true in California.

        They are doing this in a lawful and peaceful manner. From the first paragraph from their executive summary: “New California is a new state in development exercising it’s Constitutional Right to form from the State of California. The process to form New California is authorized and codified in Article 4 Section 3 of the United States Constitution.”

        As of January 20th they had 29 chartered counties (out of 58 total for the state) with more organizing. They’re goal is 40 counties. It has real potential; at least it’s legitimate in the legal sense. You can check them out at newcaliforniastate.com.

        The much ballyhooed CalExit movement from 2016 is pretty much dead. Nevertheless, many of the seditious pols, e.g. as California’s AG Xavier Becerra (who stated his intention to openly defy federal law by prosecuting businesses who coöperate with federal immigration authorities), and subversive transnational elements, e.g. MS-13, are still very much active, so there is still a threat of anti-American revolutionary and secessionist activity.

        • Been in socal for 16 years, am fixing up the place in anticipation of selling by 2020. It’s a hopelessly corrupt state.

  4. Traini received a hero’s welcome in prison by the other inmates. People already incarcerated, who have already broken some sort of social convention are thus not bound to adhere to the official narrative that he is a villain, to be condemned as “neo-Nazi” because his retaliation against a select community was racially motivated. They are free (ironically) to see him as a defender of the Italian people and to laud him as such, right or wrong. Now, he may very well be a neo-Nazi, I don’t know his particular politics, but this pejorative is used so regularly, especially by the Left, as to become almost comically meaningless at this point (you know, like, because “Trump is literally Hitler!”); I never take this label seriously anymore.

    Traini’s terrorism is an inevitable consequence of the “responsible authorities” doing little to address, or are even facilitating, the migrant invasion of Italy. It was the Italian secret police, for instance, who were hound-dogging Generation Identity’s (GI) crew in Sicily as they were about to launch their #DefendEurope Mediterranean campaign to document how NGO’s were helping human traffickers smuggle people out of Libya; it was successful despite the Italian government’s intimidation and caused a brief disruption in the flow of invaders. In this latter case, private citizens, once again, had to take matters into their own hands because government authority was doing nothing. GI went about it in a systematic way, carefully staying within the bounds of the law; this sort of lawful activism is preferable, but as more and more Western governments make more and more means of nonviolent expression unlawful, we’ll see more and more Trainis.

    Immigration is war. Just ask the Romans.

    • “Immigration is war. Just ask the Romans.”

      This statement is equaly true when describing the situation post-Caesar almost 2000 years ago, again in the 15th century (East-Rome, aka Byzantium, anno 1453), and once again today, knowing how the modern city of Rome is currently being destroyed by hostile hordes from across the Mediterranean.
      The only thing I fear is that the long-term outcome may be much worse this time that previously, if we do not act quickly now.

  5. Interesting guy who seems wise to all the muslim infiltration tricks, such as the funding of mosques from the Arabian gulf.

    • Those Muslims who seek to intentionally and knowingly destroy our lives with Islam and their mosques should not be allowed to be part of our Western societies who value decency and freedom.

      It is not them that need to be saved. It is us and our Western culture that need to be saved.

  6. Great. Apparently nobody, least of all Europe, realizes the witch doctors themselves reached this obvious conclusion parsing their own mumbo jumbo.

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