Richard Gere, migrants and Italy. The actor, increasingly distant from the spotlight of Hollywood and increasingly at the forefront of civil battles, in an exclusive interview with ‘Vanity Fair’ talks about his commitment to social causes and returns to talk about the clash that occurred in 2019 with the then Minister of the Interior, the Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, who had refused to welcome a boat with 147 migrants on board blocked off the coast of Lampedusa: “For me it is very difficult to understand a far-right conservative movement, especially in a country that is predominantly Christian. In those hours I couldn’t stop wondering what Christ would have done in such a situation, and the fact is that Christ welcomed everyone as children of God, everyone. He wouldn’t have said, ‘Only save the white people, the Italian people, or the Christian people.’ It seems quite ridiculous to me.”
“I have been on boats and personally met many refugees and migrants; I have had the opportunity to listen to their stories and I think it is very difficult not to see in them human beings equal to us. I would ask, and hope, that those with government responsibilities would pass a some time with them, understood the situation and did not demonize them”, continues the actor. “Obviously we have the same problem in the United States, with deranged people like Trump who seem to hate everyone who isn’t white and culturally aligned with him, but that’s not how the world works. We’re all in this together,” he says again.
Gere’s words do not go unnoticed. “Attention! Richard Gere warns Italians: Christ would not have said: ‘Save only white people, Italian people and Christians.’ I have the impression that this Hollywood gentleman has a rather distorted vision of what is happening in Italy, obsessed with ‘racism’“, says Salvini commenting on the interview. “It’s just disgusting to believe that someone wanted to drown people”, adds the leader of the League. “An ignoble thought debunked by the data: when I was Minister of the Interior, coincidentally, I didn’t only landings have been eliminated but deaths in the Mediterranean have been reduced. When it comes to defending the borders, in compliance with the law, against human traffickers, the League is indeed an ‘extreme’ movement, but one of extreme common sense.”
