A senior Italian senator from the Northern League party, which opposes immigration, compared the country’s first black cabinet minister to an orangutan, and was forced to apologize on Sunday, but only after his comments triggered a heavy backlash on social media and from political figures, including Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
Roberto Calderoli, a politician of the opposition party and vice president of Italy’s senate, said on Saturday at a political rally in the northern town of Treviglio that integration minister Cecile Kyenge, an Italian citizen born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reminded him of an orangutan, Reuters reported.
“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,” Calderoli said.
He added that Kyenge’s success in Italy encouraged “illegal immigrants” to come to the country looking for opportunities such as those found in “America” in Italy, and that she should be a minister “in her own country.”
rime Minister Letta sharply criticized Calderoli, saying his comments were “unacceptable” and “beyond every limit,” adding: “Full solidarity and support to Cecile. Forward with your and our work.”
Kyenge, who joined Letta’s cabinet in April, has since been a target of repeated racist and discriminatory slurs from politicians belonging to the Northern League party, and racist campaigns organized by far-right groups.
Kyenge is a doctor, who has been living in Italy since 1983. She is campaigning for reforms to make the process of acquiring citizenship easier for immigrants in Italy and supports a legislation that would grant citizenship to children of immigrants born in Italy.