Italy: Senator’s Slur Criticized

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/world/europe/italy-senators-slur-criticized.html

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Calls mounted Monday for the resignation of the Senate’s vice president, Roberto Calderoli, after he compared Italy’s first black cabinet minister to an orangutan. Prime Minister Enrico Letta lamented that the country had been “shamed” by such insults and demanded that they stop immediately. Mr. Calderoli, a leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, has insisted that he was only joking when he made the comment about the cabinet minister, Cecile Kyenge, at a weekend rally. Ms. Kyenge, an Italian citizen born in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been insulted with racist slurs from the Northern League ever since she was named integration minister in April.