Italian senator says black minister 'has features of orangutan'
Condemnation isn't enough. Roberto Calderli should resign or be sacked. The African Union should condemn this barbaric racism from Italian people. All African Ambassadors to Italy should be recalled for consultations. If a black person says publicly that white skin is similar to the chickens' skin, he/she will be arrested and be prosecuted.
© AFP
Roberto Calderoli, vice president of Italy's Senate, drew widespread condemnation from politicans and the media when he compared the country's first ever black minister Cecile Kyenge to an orangutan at a political rally on Saturday.
A fresh storm over racism has broken out in Italy after a top senator likened the country's first ever black cabinet minister to an orangutan.
Cecile Kyenge, an Italian citizen born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been the target of repeated racial slurs since her appointment as integration minister in April.
Roberto Calderoli, vice president of Italy's Senate and a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party, made the remarks at a political rally in the northern town of Treviglio on Saturday.
"I love animals - bears and wolves, as everyone knows - but when I see the pictures of Kyenge I cannot but think of, even if I'm not saying she is one, the features of an orangutan," Caldero said.
According to local media reports, he added that Kyenge's success encouraged "illegal immigrants" to come to Italy, and that she should be a minister "in her own country".
Kyenge is campaigning to make it easier for immigrants to gain citizenship, and she backs a law that would automatically make anyone born on Italian soil a citizen.
Calderoli's remarks sparked instant condemnation from figures across Italy's political spectrum, including those within his own party, with Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini describing the orangutan remark as a "shocking wisecrack" and "out-of-line".
In an official statement on Sunday Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta denounced Roberto Calderoli's words as "unacceptable" and "beyond every limit".
'If she was offended I am sorry'
Others called on Calderoli to resign, but the seasoned parliamentarian said he had no plans to step down and, initially, would only offer a qualified apology.
"I did not mean to offend and if minister Kyenge was offended I am sorry, but my comment was made within a much broader political speech that criticised the minister and her policies," he said Saturday.
However, as his comments received increasing scrutiny from international media, Calderoli called Kyenge in the evening to apologise directly.
"I just spoke with minister Kyenge and I apologised," Calderoli told state news agency Ansa.
The incident is merely the latest episode of high-profile racial tension in a nation grappling with immigration.
Last month, Kyenge, who has lived in Italy since 1983, received death threats before she visited the northern region that is Calderoli's party base while the Northern League expelled a local politician after she suggested on Facebook that someone should rape Kyenge so she "can understand what victims of atrocious crimes feel".
While not part of the government, the Northern League has long been the closest political ally of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party, which is Letta's main partner in the coalition government.
(FRANCE 24 with wires)
No comments:
Post a Comment