Bibbiano, the Italian town of "stolen children"

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Bibbiano, an Italian town of just 10,000 inhabitants, was known until recently as the cradle of Lambrusco and Parmesan cheese. Everything changed on June 27. That day a police investigation uncovered an alleged network of irregular adoptions involving psychologists, lawyers, therapists, social workers and public officials of several municipalities in the Emilia-Romagna region, ruled for half a century by the left. A scandal that has made this anonymous town the scene of the political battle in the country.

The preliminary investigation - baptized as 'Angels and demons' - revealed a supposed perfect machinery built over the years through which psychologists and social workers would have manipulated dozens of minors from families with difficulties to confess to having suffered abuse sexual by their parents , with the aim of withdrawing parental rights and that children could be adopted. "They were brainwashed through therapies to instill false memories of terrible episodes of abuse and thus denounce their own parents," reads almost 300 pages.

During the sessions, psychologists used instruments that produced electromagnetic impulses to induce them to negative memories of their parents . For this they used an American machine whose use is not approved by the Italian health system. In the reports that later referred to the magistrates who had to decide on custody, social workers would have come to invent statements and even false evidence. One of the most surprising cases is that of a 9-year-old girl who was removed from her family after drawing a male figure that extended long arms over a woman . A judge accepted the social services thesis that argued that the drawing represented the father's sexual abuse of the child. Later it was shown that disproportionate arms had been added by an adult.

Bomb threats and warnings

Before being declared adoptable, children were sent to La Cura, a public structure for minors victims of domestic violence, managed by an NGO led by Claudio Foti , one of the greatest experts in Italy in the study of child abuse. The magistrates consider Foti one of the leaders of the plot with Federica Anghinolfi , responsible for social services. The therapists charged 135 euros for each session with the children or with the possible adoptive parents, almost double the average of a private specialist. The host families received aid between 600 and 1,300 euros from the administration, not always in a transparent way. In total, it is estimated that this service, allegedly awarded irregularly, would have cost the public coffers more than 200,000 euros. A court ordered precautionary measures against about twenty people, including the local mayor, Andrea Carletti , of the Democratic Party, accused of corruption and abuse of power.

The drama of hundreds of families became a political and media scandal that favored a climate of hatred and distrust between citizens and institutions. The workers of the City Council of Bibbiano have received insults, threats and even bomb warnings in these months. The police had to protect the building during the first municipal plenary held after the case came to light.

The two parties then in the Italian Government, the League and the Five Star Movement, took advantage of the arrest of the mayor and several officials close to the center left to attack the PD, his eternal rival. At the end of July, while the coalition was reeling and rumors of an alternative alliance with the Social Democrats arose, Luigi Di Maio, then vice president and leader of the M5E, sent a harsh message: "With the Bibbiano party that in Emilia-Romagna removed the children to families with 'electroshock' to sell them I don't want to have anything to do with it. " PD leader Nicola Zingaretti announced a complaint. A month later, both signed a new government.

Evicted from the Ministry of Interior, Matteo Salvini overturned all his propaganda machinery in the 'Bibbiano case'. For months he has traveled every corner of Emilia-Romagna aware that a victory in the regional elections held yesterday in this historic feud on the left , which gave rise to the anti-fascist resistance, the first Italian unions and even the Five Star Movement, could catapult it back to power.

Political battle

"We are very tired and disappointed," acknowledges EL MUNDO Francesca Bedogni, mayor of neighboring Cavriago and currently responsible for the social services of the territory. "For the first time in history, the Emilia-Romagna region could win the right. And the first party that aspires to conquer it has made a vulgar and brutal campaign. They have not made a single useful proposal. They have worked to create exasperation because they believe that they will get something like this. Our citizens can no longer ", denounces.

Despite himself, Bibbiano has become the scene of the political battle in the transalpine country . Matteo Salvini and the movement of the 'sardines' met in their streets in one of the last campaign events before the decisive elections that were held this Sunday in the region, ruled by the left for half a century. "Out of children's hands," you could read on the poster that crowned the stage of the League, stripped of party symbols. Mothers and fathers paraded through it, victims of the alleged plot of irregular adoptions that has shaken the neighbors of this small community.

Matteo Salvini chose Bibbiano to celebrate one of his last campaign acts before the elections. "Out of the hands of children," you could read on the poster that crowned the stage where mothers and fathers paraded, victims of the alleged plot of irregular adoptions. A few meters away, about 2,000 'sardines' - almost twice as many attendees at the legume rally - were measured again with 'Il Capitano' in the street. And they won. Mattia Santori , the spokesman for this civic movement that emerged two months ago in Bologna, denounced the "instrumentalization" of a judicial case by the League leader. A criticism that Bedogni also shares. "We do not see the time that arrives on Sunday [yesterday] to get rid of this useless propaganda because we are sure that the day after the elections Salvini will not return. And this gives us great relief," he concludes.

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