In Coccaglio (Italy), a town of 8,000 inhabitants between Milan and Venice, the approach to Christianity's most sacred festival has been marked in a very special way. On orders from the local council, controlled by the conservative Northern League, police have been carrying out house-to-house searches for illegal immigrants in an action dubbed Operation White Christmas. The operation is due to finish on December 25.
Some 3,000 people have marched through the town in protest at the operation, which the Vatican called "sad and distressing". But it has been endorsed by Silvio Berlusconi's government. Visiting nearby Brescia, where he announced the opening of a detention camp for suspected illegal immigrants – a so-called centre for identification and expulsion – Berlusconi's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, a leader of the League, complimented Coccaglio's mayor.
"Operation White Christmas has been carried out in other towns with other names and without arousing the same kind of clamour," he said. "These are initiatives that serve to check and combat the phenomenon of illegal immigrants. So there is no 'story' and no racism."