Centre-left opposition
Democratic Party (PD) MEP Cecile Kyenge, formerly Italy's first
black minister, went on trial Thursday for calling the
anti-migrant League party racist.
The trial of Kyenge, once likened to an orangutan by a League
heavyweight, is the result of a libel suit filed by League
leader Matteo Salvini.
During a PD supporters' yearly get-together in Parma, Kyenge
said the League was a "racist" party.
The League, while pursuing a crackdown on migrants, has
always denied it is racist.
Sending her to trial in January, preliminary investigations
judge Stefania Di Rienzo said Kyenge had implicitly compared the
League to the Nazis.
Kyenge has been the target of League abuse for years.
Last year, when the League was still called the Northern
League, MEP Mario Borghezio was ordered to pay the Congo-born
former integration minister Cecile Kyenge 50,000 euros in
compensation for a racist slur.
"I can't afford it, I'll have to sell my house," commented
Borghezio, who has a history of controversial anti-immigrant
remarks and actions.
Borghezio, interviewed on April 29, 2013 after Kyenge's
appointment, reportedly said among other things that "Africans
are Africans and belong to an ethnic group very different from
ours".
He also complained that Kyenge, who was educated in Italy
to become an ophthalmologist, had taken away a health post that
he said should have been given to "some Italian doctor".
In another remark that was not covered by last year's
verdict, Borghezio claimed Kyenge would impose her "tribal
traditions" from the Congo on Italy.
"This is a bonga bonga government, they want to change
birthright citizenship laws and Kyenge wants to impose her
tribal traditions from the Congo," said Borghezio.
Other politicians with the Northern League have faced legal
action for comments against Kyenge.
Former Senator Ermino Boso, interviewed a few days after
Borghezio on May 1, 2013, reportedly said Kyenge should have
"stayed home in the Congo".
In November 2013 Northern League Senator and former minister
Roberto Calderoli was charged with defamation aggravated by
racial discrimination after he compared Kyenge to an orangutan.
That remark by Calderoli was one of the first and probably
the worst, but not the only such slur against the eye doctor.
Earlier in 2013 Northern League Padua Councillor Dolores
Valandro posted on Facebook that someone should rape Kyenge "so
she knows what it feels like" in response to a report of an
Italian woman who was allegedly raped by an African man.
Borghezio has a track record of anti-immigrant acts.
In 2000 he was lampooned on TV for his efforts to clean up,
with dusters and spray, trains allegedly used by foreign
prostitutes and immigrants.
Kyenge recalled several episodes of alleged League racism on
social media Friday, saying "is the League racist? Judge for
yourselves".
She posted headlines including When Salvini Sang: 'Smell the
Stink, the Neapolitans are Coming'; Calderoli: When I See Kyenge
I think of an Orangutan; League: Separate Carriages For Non-EU
Migrants; and Borghezio: 'Bonga Bonga Government: Kyenge A
F**king Bad Choice'.
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