When he became the mayor of the tiny hilltop town Riace, in Calabria, southern Italy, Domenico “Mimmo” Lucano had to save his community from depopulation. Lucano managed to revitalise his town by welcoming and integrating new residents. In 2021, he was sentenced to 13 years and 2 months in prison for abetting illegal migration.

His appeal trial started on 25 May. To show their human and political support, Members of the European Parliament are in Riace this week to speak out in an event organised by Mimmo Lucano on 3-4 June. The mission is co-organised by MEPs Cornelia Ernst (The Left), Rosa d’Amato and Damien Carême (Greens/EFA).

The main square of the Calabrian town lists the 20 countries people have come from: Eritrea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, to name only a few. For more than a decade, when he was mayor, Mimmo offered new people homes and jobs. He settled more than 500 refugees in Riace, now a town of 1,800 inhabitants and prevented the closure of the local school. At the end of the 90’s, it had no more than 900 inhabitants. The “Riace model” drew praise worldwide. Fortune magazine named him one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders, in 2016, and the German city of Dresden, awarded him its international peace prize in 2017.

“We are travelling to Riace to express our full solidarity and political support to Mimmo Lucano. I am strongly concerned that the criminalisation of people on the move and those supporting them, including local authorities and citizens, is spreading and intensifying all over Europe: in Italy, Greece, Croatia, Poland and other member states. The case of Mimmo, whose engagement is recognised globally, is outrageous because solidarity with people on the move is never a crime, neither is fleeing your country,” says Left MEP Cornelia Ernst.

The Left will continue to support such examples of humanity and hope against xenophobia, racism and fear. We stand with those who save lives and we fully support Mimmo’s battle for justice to prove his innocence. We will continue to fight for building communities instead of walls and for an EU humane migration policy.

Solidarity is not a crime.@ErnstCornelia is in Riace, Italy this week to show support for Domenico "Mimmo" Lucano, on trial for helping refugees.

She will bring a message to all who defend #HumanRights 🔊 Solidarity with people in distress is a duty, not a crime.#MimmoLucano pic.twitter.com/6GcR0SvBRi

— The Left in the European Parliament (@Left_EU) June 2, 2022

Against the Criminalisation of Solidarity – AGENDA