Silvia Sardone is a native of Milan who represents the Lega in the European Parliament. In the following interview she discusses the immigrant violence with which Milan is plagued.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this interview from Il Giornale:

“The Left pretends not to see the foreign violence”

February 8, 2022

The Left denies that the safety problem in Milan is connected to uncontrolled immigration. Silvia Sardone unmasks the usual feel-good story.

by Francesca Galici

Safety is a problem in Milan, and the total absence of a strategy of reception of immigrants is part of that. This fact is ignored, however by the Left, which prefers to tell other truths rather than admit the failure of the feel-good ideology of reception at all costs.

Minister Lamorgese, at the end of a meeting in the prefecture with the mayor of Milan, pertaining to the violence of New Year’s Eve, said, “Those who have used violence are boys, second-generation Italian citizens, therefore I will not combine the immigration subject with the violence that, unfortunately, occurs on the part of Italian citizens.”

But the interior minister spoke a half-truth, there already being three foreigners in jail for those acts. The latter were arrested in recent hours. Silvia Sardone, counselor in force for the Lega for the municipality of Milan, which before the security emergency reached the maximum level of alert, is trying to shine the spotlight on the issue, but the Left has always been deaf in that ear. We spoke with her immediately after the end of the meeting in the prefecture between the mayor, the minister the police chief, and the prefect.

What is the impact of foreigners on sexual crimes in Milan?

From data in our possession, as reported in the latest national ranking on crimes by Il Sole 24 Ore, which sees Milan as the crime capital of Italy, we know that complaints against foreigners are at 57%, an alarming figure if we consider that legal foreigners represent about 20% of the population of Milan. As for sexual violence, it is in front of everybody’s eyes except the Left, which pretends not to see the larger propensity on the part of foreigners, especially North Africans, for harassing and attacking women of all ages, as the shameful episodes of New Year’s Eve and Cascina Gobba* teach us. In almost half of the cases, the perpetrators are not Italians. At San Vittore [prison] 75% of the prisoners are foreign: Something they [the Left] might want to say about these numbers…”

Yet, it seems that Mayor Sala has just now realized the safety emergency. How many complaints for harassment have there been in the past year?

We are talking about around 15 complaints a year for every 100,000 residents of Milan, important numbers that show a real drama. Behind every act of violence, there is a mother, a wife, a daughter, women who are harassed, attacked, raped, and humiliated by thugs without scruples who often have no right to be in our country. Illegals whom the Left has welcomed into our city then abandoned to their destiny. The municipal administration bears much blame for this.

Why not assign more police to control the territory?

The meeting yesterday in the prefecture with Minister Lamorgese did not produce the hoped-for results, because the 255 policemen who will be assigned to Milan — not all immediately, by the way — are not enough. And I cannot help but note that Mayor Sala now realizes the problem, yet it was he who put the local police in Smart Working rather than assign them in the area of prevention and combating crimes. Sala is the mayor of “the day after” and is absolutely non-existent on safety. That is shown by the fact that as councilor, he chose Granelli, who explained on social media on New Year’s Eve that everything was getting better… It is disrespectful to reduce a felt and perceived fear to emotionality on social media.

How can the perception of safety in Milan be improved?

First of all, with the awareness on the part of the Left that they have completely failed on this issue. As long as those who administer this city do not recognize their faults, it will be difficult to change the situation. In practice, the local police must be returned to the condition of being the great force that all of Italy envied as the model — rather than pursuing businesspeople for a table out of position by two centimeters or harassing drivers with 30 kph zones, why doesn’t the Left change gears by restoring neighborhood watches and creating mobile garrisons in the hottest suburbs? The citizens on the street have to see the uniforms to feel more secure and protected. The municipality must take an active part, evicting the squatters from public housing, closing the social centers, and securing the dozens of abandoned properties occupied by stragglers, dealers, and illegals. Not just that: implement video surveillance, institute patrols on public transport, increase the presence of the military in the most sensitive places in the city.