Right-wing Italian politician Roberto Gremmo plans to found a new political party next month, whose platform will be avowedly racist and inspired by the French National Front, according to news reports.
The party, to be called the League of Popular Salvation, is to be founded Oct. 3 in Venice.
Its aim, Gremmo was quoted by the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, will be “to expel (non-Western) invaders, whether they are here legally or not.”
The party symbol, he was quoted as saying, will be the Statue of Liberty, to be used an example of a paradox.
“The Americans put immigrants in quarantine on Ellis Island, right in front of the Statue of Liberty. Not like us, where everyone can enter.”
Gremmo, 41, denies he is racist but admits that Jean Le Pen’s National Front inspired him to found his own party.
He was quoted as saying he expected to gain a following of at least 1 million people, “those who want to expel the (non-Western) immigrants because they bring drugs, leprosy and AIDS.”
Italy’s fourth-largest political party is the Northern League, which demands regional autonomy for northern Italy. Its views have also included stands against both southern Italians and non-Western immigrants, but not as overtly as Gremmo’s policies appear to be.
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