Fratelli di Sangue

Like the British royal family, the mafia and some of the more endearing popes, the modern Italian state values blood ties above all, and so has granted citizenship to the Boris Johnson of Buenos Aires because of his immigrant background. This has prompted indignation on behalf of people resident in Italy who may work, pay taxes and enrich the culture of the Republic as much as they please, but who are denied the honour of citizenship because they or their parents were born abroad. In Italy as on the mainland, the belief prevails that the worth of an individual depends less on their deeds or their potential than on the presence or absence of a few shared gobs of genetic gunk. It is fortunate indeed that this idea is shared only by patriots and family-values touts, and not at all by racists.