美国国家公共电台 NPR Long A Bastion Of The Left, Tuscany Is Turning Hard Right

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Italian region of Tuscany has long been a left-wing stronghold. But as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports, it has experienced political upheaval¹ as the hard-right, anti-immigrant party known as the League has ousted² left-leaning political leaders in many towns for the first time in decades.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE³: Pisa's Square of Miracles is a major tourist attraction. The cathedral, baptistery and iconic leaning tower were built more than a thousand years ago in a blend of Byzantine and Islamic styles, symbolizing⁴ the powerful maritime⁵ republic's trade links across the Mediterranean⁶.

Today, Pisa, with 90,000 people, has a Muslim community of 2,000. Two years ago, the center-left administration approved its request for a mosque⁷ on Pisa's outskirts⁸. But after the League won power last year, the new mayor fulfilled a campaign promise and vetoed the mosque's construction.

Mohammad Khalil, a Palestinian and Italian citizen who came here 39 years ago to study engineering, is president of Pisa's Muslim community.

MOHAMMAD KHALIL: (Through interpreter) I guess fear-mongering works. The League keep saying Italians first, but many of us are also Italian citizens and just as concerned about security as everyone else is.

POGGIOLI: Repeated requests to see Pisa's mayor or members of his administration were refused. But Davide Cinini, a former leftist, was willing to explain why he embraced the hard-right League. He accuses the center-left Democratic Party, in power at the national level until June last year, of following European Union orders imposing⁹ austerity measures that he says led to increased economic stagnation¹⁰ and high unemployment.

DAVIDE CININI: (Through interpreter) When a leftist party promotes policies that are not leftist, that are against the working class, I'm not the one who changed. What's happening around me has changed.

POGGIOLI: Democratic Party activist¹¹ Michele Ceraolo acknowledges the left failed to grasp citizens' economic anxieties after the financial crisis.

MICHELE CERAOLO: The right, at the moment, has a strong storytelling. The left has none. The right knows how to talk to the heart of the people. I know that you are insecure. You have fear.

POGGIOLI: Fear of the 600,000 migrants who arrived in Italy in the last five years. The migrants' surge was followed by the League's surge in local and national elections. Since party leader Matteo Salvini became Italy's deputy prime minister last year, his popularity has soared as he bulldozed camps where Roma families lived, sharply curtailed¹² funds for refugee shelters and shut down Italy's ports to migrant rescue ships.

We're at a spot in Montecatini where men and women sip¹³ prosecco as they celebrate the League's victory in municipal elections last May. Walls are covered with posters proclaiming Italy first and hailing Salvini, il Capitano, as national savior. Local League leader Andrea Picchielli accuses the Democratic Party of doing nothing to stop the migrant influx¹⁴ and rejects its criticism of the League's policies.

ANDREA PICCHIELLI: Sometimes they called us racist¹⁵. We are not racist at all. We want to help people who have, really, the right to stay here - but not everybody.

POGGIOLI: Maria Ardagna, an ardent¹⁶ Salvini fan, believes in the decades-old racist trope the great replacement¹⁷ conspiracy¹⁸, which she sees as a plot to replace white Europeans with black migrants. She says she knows the plotters are big names in international finance.

MARIA ARDAGNA: Soros, Rockefeller, Rothschild.

POGGIOLI: Like many other League voters, Ardagna is not a fan of Pope Francis, who recently warned that fearmongers have made people intolerant and, perhaps without realizing it, racist.

ARDAGNA: (Through interpreter) He does un-Christian things. When he travels and finds families in need, he doesn't bring Christians¹⁹ back to Rome. He brings Muslims. He's not a pope. For us, he's the Antichrist.

POGGIOLI: The victory party ends with a speech by a rising star, 32-year-old Susanna Ceccardi. As the League's first elected mayor in Tuscany in 2016, she scrapped²⁰ government-funded projects to help migrants integrate in favor of hiring private guards as night-time sentinels. She tells the crowd she's sick and tired of the left accusing the League of being heartless.

SUSANNA CECCARDI: (Speaking Italian).

POGGIOLI: "I strongly believe," says Ceccardi, "that bulldozing Roma camps and curbing²¹ illegal immigration by shutting down ports, as Salvini has done, are great humanitarian²² acts."

(APPLAUSE)

POGGIOLI: In May, Ceccardi won a seat for the League in the European Parliament in Brussels. Next year, she plans to run for governor of the entire region of Tuscany. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Montecatini.

1 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

2 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 symbolizing   

v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This symbol later evolved into a common hieroglyphic symbolizing victory. 这幕场景后来逐渐演化为象征胜利的普通象形文字。 来自时文部分
• Mooncakes reunion, is symbolizing the Mid-Autumn festival will feed. 月饼象征着团圆，是中秋佳节必食之品。 来自互联网

5 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

6 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

7 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

8 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

9 imposing   

adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的

参考例句：

• The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
• He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。

10 stagnation   

n. 停滞

参考例句：

• Poor economic policies led to a long period of stagnation and decline. 糟糕的经济政策道致了长时间的经济萧条和下滑。
• Motion is absolute while stagnation is relative. 运动是绝对的，而静止是相对的。

11 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

12 curtailed   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。
• Their public health programme had to be severely curtailed. 他们的公共卫生计划不得不大大收缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。

14 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

15 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

16 ardent   

adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的

参考例句：

• He's an ardent supporter of the local football team.他是本地足球队的热情支持者。
• Ardent expectations were held by his parents for his college career.他父母对他的大学学习抱着殷切的期望。

17 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

18 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

19 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

20 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

21 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

22 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。