
The
pro-Roma group Associazione 21 Luglio, which regularly condemns discrimination
and violence against Roma and Sinti in Italy - including repeated cases of
local residents attacking camps with Molotov cocktails - expressed
"pain" at the deaths.President Sergio Mattarella denounced the "horrible
crime", echoing Rome mayor Virginia Raggi's sorrow and Pope Francis sent
his chaplain to comfort the bereaved family and bring them "concrete
assistance", the Vatican said.Although over half of the 170 000 or so Roma
and Sinti people in Italy are Italian citizens with regular jobs and houses,
hate crimes against the poorest strata are rife.
The intolerance is fuelled by inflammatory comments by politicians
on both the left and right quick to paint Roma as crooks.