Miah Rhitu and Sumiya Begum from Italy’s Democratic Party (PD) instruct Bangladeshis in Venice on how to proceed in order to vote for the PD. Still image: Welcome to Favelas / Instagram.
A video recording recently made public in several Italian media outlets shows how the Bangladeshi cultural association Venice Bangla School in Venice teaches its members to vote for the Democratic Party (PD), the largest party on the left, in the local elections taking place these days.
Miah Rhitu, a candidate for the PD in the local elections in Venice, has participated in this “instruction”, as can be seen in a video recording available on the Instagram account Welcome to Favelas. The same applies to Sumiya Begum, who is also a candidate for the PD.
In the video, Rhitu says: “You must look for PD, put a cross next to PD and then write in the names. […] You must not vote for any other party.”
Ballot paper with a cross over the PD logo and preference votes for two candidates. Still image: Welcome to Favelas / Instagram.
Venice Bangla School is fundamentally an association that provides instruction in Italian language and culture to persons of Bangladeshi origin, and has been highlighted as an exemplary integration initiative.
But the incident shown in the video – which has only been covered by the media outlets Libero, Il Giornale, Il Tempo and Secolo d’Italia, yet has gone viral online – has created a problem of explanation for Rhitu and Begum. Is Muslim sectarianism in politics, a well-known phenomenon from for example the United Kingdom, now making its way into Italy as well?
It may appear so: The approximately 15,000 persons of Bangladeshi origin in the Venice area have fielded seven candidates in the municipal and district elections.
The Bangladeshi community in Venice – a municipality that encompasses both the world-famous historic centre in the Venice lagoon and a larger mainland area – has several political causes, such as the construction of a mosque in the most populous district of Mestre, but also a Muslim cemetery and a cricket ground.
The governing parties Lega and Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), both belonging to the right wing, accuse the PD of making use of organised ethnic and religious voting. – If we had done something similar, it would have become a scandal, goes the refrain.
Secolo d’Italia writes:
What makes the election campaign even more symbolic are also the leaflets distributed within the community. One of the campaign posters, written entirely in Bengali and accompanied by the Bangladeshi flag, openly urges people to vote for the PD “in the name of Allah”.
The text states: “The Bengali community urges everyone to vote”. It further says: “Put a cross next to the PD symbol and write in the names of the candidates”. In recent hours, Kamrul Syed, one of the PD candidates, has also published a message on social media directed at his compatriots: “May Allah protect us all and give us the ability to make the right decision.”
Silvia Sardone, who represents Lega in the European Parliament, says in a comment that the PD is clearly targeting Islamic voters.
In France, islamogauchisme, or Islamo-leftism, is already an established expression, often used in reference to the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI). The question is whether it will not come into use in Italy as well.