Vice president of the Italian Senate is facing calls to step down after he compared Italyâ„¢s first black cabinet minister to an orangutan.
Italian politicians increased their calls of resignation on Monday for Roberto Calderoli, member of the anti-immigration Northern League Party, after he likened the country™s integration minister, Cécile Kyenge, to an ape.
Å“What Italy has been going through since yesterday on such issues is a page of shame which is absolutely unbearable…. Please close this episode as soon as possible,” said Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, while calling for an end to racial slurs.
Letta went on to inform Northern League leader Roberto Maroni to put an end to the slurs from within his party ranks, saying they shame the entire country.
President of the Italian Senate Pietro Grasso also condemned Calderoliâ„¢s insult as Å“racist verbal aggression.”
On Saturday, Calderoli said that the Congolese-born Kyenge Å“made him think of an orangutan,” while encouraging her to be a minister Å“in her own country” because she encouraged Å“illegal immigrants” to come to Italy.
Since Kyenge was appointed integration minister in April, she has undergone repeated racial slurs, such as Å“Congolese monkey”, Å“Zulu” and the Å“black anti-Italian.”
This is not the first time Italyâ„¢s opposition politician Calderoli, twice a cabinet minister under the administration of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has given offensive remarks, which caused repercussions.
He was forced to resign as reform minister in 2006 after displaying a T-shirt mocking Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and in the same year he said Franceâ„¢s soccer team loss against Italy in the World Cup final was because its team consists of Å“niggers, Muslims and communists.”
GMA/SS
Republished with permission from: Press TV