(09/10/2018)
As black elected representatives and community leaders from across Europe, we are deeply troubled that a court in Piacenza, Italy, has allowed the Italian League party to open a case of defamation against Cécile Kashetu Kyenge, the former Italian minister of integration and current member of the European parliament, for calling the League racist. Cécile was responding to a picture posted on social media by Pablo Rainieri, who at the time was party secretary in the Emilia-Romagna region, depicting her as an orangutan.
The image on social media is one of many incidents and intimidations by the League’s politicians and supporters that Cécile has recently faced. We fully support Cécile and stand with her decision to remove her parliamentary immunity to fight against racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance.
We also want to state our concern that Cécile’s case represents a wider problem across Europe where we are witnessing the rise of populist, far-right parties in government who are pushing their nationalist agenda and spreading fear and hate against minorities. Only last week, the Italian League president and minister of home affairs, Matteo Salvini, compared African migrants to slaves, saying: “In Italy there’s the need to help our kids have kids, not to have new slaves to replace the children we’re not having.”
Clive Lewis MP United Kingdom
Karamba Diaby MP Germany
Killion Munyama MP Poland
Diane Abbott MP United Kingdom
Keith Vaz United Kingdom
Olivio Cake-Kocsis MP Hungary
Valerie Vaz MP United Kingdom
Dawn Butler MP United Kingdom
Jallow Momodou MP Sweden
Imran Hussein MP United Kingdom
David Lammy MP United Kingdom
Kate Osamor MP United Kingdom
Robert Schaddach MP Berlin, Germany
Aminata Touré MP Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Elombo Bolayela MP Bremen, Germany
Bambos Charalambous MP United Kingdom
Preet Kaur Gill MP United Kingdom
Seema Malhotra MP United Kingdom
Tan Dhesi MP United Kingdom
Fiona Onasanya MP United Kingdom
Tulip Siddiq MP United Kingdom
Rosena Allin-Khan MP United Kingdom
Chuka Umunna MP United Kingdom
Faisal Rashid MP United Kingdom
Naz Shah MP United Kingdom
Marsha de Cordova MP United Kingdom
Rupa Huq MP United Kingdom
Shabana Mahmood MP United Kingdom
Yasmin Qureshi MP United Kingdom
Rushanara Ali MP United Kingdom
Sanchia Alasia Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, United Kingdom
Councillor Mpanzu Bamenga Netherlands
Councillor Tracy Tansia Belgium
Said Abdu Former MP, Sweden
Karen Kaneza Council candidate 2018, Belgium
Karen Taylor Board member of SPD Berlin and chair of the Committee for Migration and Diversity of SPD Berlin
Mireille Fanon-Mendès President of the Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
Simon Woolley Director, Operation Black Vote, United Kingdom