Footage has emerged of an incident showing the harassment of two teenage girls by a group of approximately 30 males near the Palazzo Reale in the center of Milan on New Year’s Eve.
Initially reported by Italian newspaper il Giornale on Jan. 1, one of the victims told police that she had been groped by at least one male with others attempting to undress her as celebrations to see in the new year continued around her.
The 19-year old-girl attempted to defend herself with her handbag which was reportedly snatched by one of her attackers as she fended off their advances.
Footage showing the aftermath of the attack has now been published online, which shows two young women pressed against a barricade in the heavily-crowded area, purportedly trapped between the barriers and a group of young males who surround the women and engage with them in a way that is clearly causing distress.
The girls are seen forcing their way through the group towards a line of police officers who offer assistance. il Giornale reports that the two victims told investigators that they believed their attackers to be of foreign origin.
The footage is raising comparisons with the horrific scenes witnessed in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve in 2015 — where the German Federal Criminal Police estimated that nearly 2,000 women had been sexually assaulted by primarily North African and Middle Eastern migrants — and brings to light the concerning growth of the incitement of sexual violence against women, often by groups of foreign men. According to government statistics, 42 percent of all rapes in Italy are committed by migrants despite only being 8 percent of the Italian population.
Milan, in particular, has witnessed a dramatic rise in public disorder and crime following a significant influx of illegal immigration, predominantly from northern Africa via the Mediterranean. In June, local League Party MEP Silvia Sardone lamented the demise of the city, regarding the number of illegal immigrants and vagrants on Milanese streets as an “absolute degradation” equal to that of “the third world.”
“Today, in the shadow of the Madonnina, next to the iconic aperitifs, you can buy doses of drugs and watch furious brawls with throwing of chairs and tables,” Sardone added.
Her party leader and former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has also alluded to the demographic change in the northern Italian city, tweeting a video in September 2021 of a man using a rock to smash up a stationary bus.
“Milan, another precious ‘resource’ maintained at the expense of the Italians,” Salvini fumed in a social media post.
Italian media reports that 10 fights were recorded in New Year’s Eve in the center of Milan, which saw an 18-year-old male stabbed in the neck, two other teenage males taken to hospital with head and chest injuries caused by a broken bottle, and two boys reportedly attacked by seven foreigners in a brawl in which police intervened.
