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Italian PM's proposal to increase cultural spending as anti-terror measures echoed

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian prime minister's recent proposal to increase cultural spending as part of anti-terror measures has been echoed by local experts and media.

In the wake of the Paris terror attacks in November which left 130 people dead, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has proposed to increase spending on cultural programs as its anti-terror measures, including protecting cultural sites and supporting young people to visit them.

The proposal was to instill "cultural identity" among migrant populations settling in Italy, Renzi said.

The proposal has yet to be approved by the parliament, which is expected to approve later this week a budget for 2016.

The French daily newspaper Le Monde called Renzi's proposal "far-sighted."

"When you attack culture, you attack identity of a society," said Massimo Bianco, president of the International University of Security Science in Milan.

Bianco said that when the terrorists destroyed, for example, the ancient Middle Eastern treasures represented by the Parthian city of Hatra in Iraq, it was also a kind of psychological attack, which can often be more terrible than the actual damage.

A poll from Opinioni, a polling firm, also showed that nearly two of every three Italians support the increased cultural spending as part of Italy's anti-terror strategy. Endi