If you have not heard, Italian senator and Lega Nord politcian Roberto Calderoli caused a scandal this week in Italy after likening to Italy’s black minister Cécile Kyenge to an orang-utan.
This is not the first racist storm Calderoli has been mixed up in either. After another bout of Calderoli racism, 11 people lost their lives.
Calderoli’s latest racist comment easily qualifies him as Italy Chronicles’ Italian Rogue of the Week.
Despite calls for him to go, Senator Calderoli, who has apologised for what he considers a harmless quip, refuses to resign from his position as deputy president of Italy’s senate. An apology and the admission his comment was offensive is enough, he believes, as does his Lega Nord party. Others are not so sure.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
The orang-outang incident has not done any favors for Italy’s reputation at international level with the story being covered by much of the world’s press.
Nobody is really sure why Calderoli was appointed to such a senior position in Italy’s government once more, especially seeing as this rogue, and former government minister to boot, was forced to resign after a previous racist act – one which came to be known as the Cartoon Crisis. This crisis indirectly led to the deaths of 11 people in Libya.
Calderoli has quite a reputation for racism in Italy, but Italy does not really think racism is a huge issue, hence Calderoli being appointed once again as a senior representative of Italy’s institutions.
So there you have it, one of Italy’s representatives is a rogue. He’s not alone, there are quite a number of rogues in Italy government, alas 🙁
Today, it has been announced that Calderoli is under investigation for racially motivated defamation.
