ROME - An effort by the Egyptian Museum of Turin to assist in the integration of 50,000 Arabic Italians in the region has led to associations of racism by the Northern League.

 The museum launched a campaign offering Arabic speakers 2 for 1 tickets into the museum when they present an Arabic identification. ‘It is partially a strategy of audience development,’ explained the press office, a sentiment expanded on by the director Christian Greco, who said ‘(Turin is a city that) has the fortune to keep a very important collection, and can not forget the country from which it comes.’

 Whatever the thinking behind the promotion, the words “reserved for Arabic speakers” have rubbed some locals the wrong way. Secretary of the Northern League Matteo Salvini called the situation ‘crazy!’ and ‘racism against the Italians’ on Facebook.

 The national leader of the Brothers of Italy party, a right wing splinter of Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Giorgia Meloni chimed in on Facebook: ‘It's an insane thing to promote. Pay a ticket and get two if you have an Arab identity card it says in adverts all over buses and trams, in Arabic and without translation, with a veiled woman and a man behind her smiling. Don’t forget that the Egyptian museum in Turin takes public subsidies, it is financed with the money of the Italians, and among the five members of the Board there is an exponent designated by the City of Turin, one from the Piedmont Region and the president appointed directly by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.’

 The Egyptian Museum has tried to calm down the outraged right-wing parties with the reminder that ‘as for “public money,” there is no problem because the Museum is self-financing with its own tickets.’ They continued, ‘it is not discrimination, we also do campaigns in English on media addressed to the Anglo-Saxon world and openings at discounted prices on some days for everyone …the veiled woman has been chosen because it is more recognizable and "symbolic" (they are the majority).’

kvh