After Boris Johnson, the great multi-ethnic race to lead Great Britain- Corriere.it

Rishi Sunak, Indian. Sajid Javid, Pakistani. Kimi Badenouche, Nigerian. Priti Patel, an Indian. Nadim ZahawiIraqi Kurdish, Suila Braverman, Indian. Over Half (6 of 11) Top candidates to succeed Boris Johnson The Conservative Leader will be announced on September 5th – they are people of color and representatives of ethnic minorities. But the beauty of it is that no one in London cares about it: because it goes unnoticed in the newspapers. The reason, according to surveys,84 per cent of Britons are comfortable with the idea of ​​a non-white prime minister and 58 per cent think the prime minister’s race is irrelevant.

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The most likely candidate, former Finance Minister sonakHe is the son of Indian immigrants who arrived in Great Britain from East Africa, while his ancestors were originally from the Punjab; javed and the The son of a Pakistani bus driver whose wife, who is also from the Indian subcontinent, does not speak English; Badnoch He grew up in Lagos and only settled in Great Britain at the age of sixteen; Battle He hails from an Indian family from Gujarat that arrived via Uganda; Zahawi He arrived as a refugee with his family, fleeing Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, at the age of nine without speaking a single word of English; Braverman She was also born to Indian parents who immigrated from Africa. Nobody here identifies these politicians with the vaguely racist expression.”The second generation of immigrants(if not earlier): If one is British, then one is British, period. And this ethnicity is also another indication of how far London is from the rest of Europe: all members of the European Union Commission are white, while a quarter of the members of the Cabinet are Johnson It was colorful.

there Britain’s exit from the European Unionamong other effects, has also had the effect of reducing the presence of ethnic minorities in the European Parliament: Because the majority of black MEPs were British, while there are several national delegations and they are all white. It should also be noted that the race for leadership dominated by members of ethnic minorities is that of the Conservative Party, a right that critics have accused of turning, under Johnson, into a national popular force. But actually I conservatives The British are very pragmatic, not ideologicalwhich has always adapted to reality: while it is hard to imagine non-white politicians vying for the leadership of the Brothers of Italy or the League, let alone Marine Le Pen’s party in France.

It is proof of how complete Britain is as a multiethnic and multicultural nationEasy on your skin, whatever its color. On the other hand, it is enough to turn on the TV to notice: black journalists (mostly women) present the BBC news, in the advertisements there are always characters from different ethnic groups, where perhaps the owner is black and the carpenter doing the work for him is white (and even Aperol posters in The subway is an appetizing depiction in Italy where the participants are multi-ethnic, because no one dares to represent a monochromatic reality). In the newspapers, bank and supermarket testimonials are ladies full of headscarves, the Islamic headscarf. Incidentally, 5 out of 11 candidates for prime minister are women: gender equality in Britain is also taken for granted. Even then, it was the Tories who led the way, actually making not one but two initial bids (Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May). Meanwhile in Italy, in a galaxy far away, there is a fight over ius scholae…