Coronavirus: Italy Region Head Says ‘Discriminatory’ Nations Shouldn’t Be in EU

MILAN, ITALY - FEBRUARY 25: Two women, both wearing a respiratory mask, walk in Piazza del Duomo on February 25, 2020 in Milan, Italy. Italy is the last country to be hit hard by the virus with 7 dead and more than 283 infected as of today. The spread marks …
Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images

The populist League president of Lombardy, Italy’s region with the largest number of Coronavirus cases, has slammed European Union states for discriminating against his region.

Lombardy President Attilio Fontana made his statements on the Coronavirus outbreak in his region this week, slamming countries he claimed were “discriminatory” after EU member states like Ireland and Austria either closed borders to Italy or put out travel advisories against visiting the Italian region.

Some countries in Europe, Fontana noted, “perhaps should slightly revise their membership of the Union after discrimination begins against us,” Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.

Fontana went on to downplay the risk of the coronavirus saying that while the virus is able to aggressively spread, its danger was not that greater than the common flu.

The Lombardy president went on to praise local healthcare workers saying, “There are people who are to be considered heroic, people who do not look at the working hours, people who do not return home, doctors who for fear of infecting their family have decided to live in the hospital to continue working.”

According to Fontana, the reason that so many infections have been identified in his region is that healthcare professionals have been meticulously proving so many tests to anyone showing symptoms of the virus.

“It is clear that by doing so many tests we found many who had been affected by this infection,” he said.

Speaking on the economic impact of the virus, Fontana stated that he has asked the national government to provide aid for businesses.

Since last week, northern Italy has seen a surge in confirmed cases of the virus, becoming the country with the third-largest number of confirmed cases in the world after China and South Korea. Seven fatalities have been linked to the virus so far and 283 total cases.

Senator Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League, slammed the leftist coalition government’s response to the outbreak last week saying,” it is essential that, from today (if they haven’t already done it yesterday), anyone who enters Italy, by any means of transport, from the raft to the aeroplane, be checked. And if it comes from some areas, it will be isolated for fifteen days. As other countries do.”

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)


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