RACISM IN ITALIAN SENATE: Vice President Of The Italian Senate Calls A Female Black Politician An "Orangutan"
Roberto Calderoli (Pictured Left)
Vice President of the Italian Senate has been widely condenmed over rascist comments he made against a fellow politician of roots.
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, Italian born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been targetted with 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.
Cecile
Kyenge
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.
