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Italy’s government promised to put ‘Italians first,’ but its policies are hurting Italians, too

2019-02-07 10:15:06       source:The Washington Post

February 6, 2019


ROME — The building is seven stories tall, not far from the main train station, surrounded by cheap motels. Once, it was the bureaucratic headquarters for a government pension fund. Now, it is an illegal home for 450 people who sleep in the old office rooms, share bathroom cleanup duties, and take turns standing guard at the front entrance, ready to press an alarm button if and when authorities show up and order them to leave. 


Some of the people in the building are newly arrived immigrants — the targets of a law-and-order clampdown by Italy’s populist government.


Others, though, might have expected support from a government that has promised to put “Italians first.”

“I am an Italian,” said Maurizio Zanga, 62, a laid-off garbage collector who lives on the seventh floor next to a family of Somalis. “But I am not one of the first. I am one of the last.”


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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italys-government-promised-to-put-italians-first-but-its-policies-are-hurting-italians-too/2019/02/06/46406afa-0209-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html?utm_term=.677dbf215e78