Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi called for the expulsion of thousands of migrants after a racist shooting that shocked Italy at the weekend.
Luca Traini, a 28-year-old militant for the anti-migrant league, shot and wounded six migrants in a drive-by shooting spree in the Marche city Macerata days after the discovery there of the body of an 18-year-old Italian woman allegedly killed and dismembered by a Nigerian immigrant.
"600,000 migrants are a social bomb that risks exploding," said Berlusconi, echoing League leader Matteo Salvini who said "those who fill us with migrants instigate violence" like Traini's.
Salvini's critics have accused him with his incessant anti-migrant invective of "morally arming" Traini, who is now being held in the same jail as Innocent Oseghale, the alleged drug pusher who allegedly killed recovering drug addict Pamela Mastropietro before stuffing her hacked-up body into two suitcases and dumping them near Macerata.
Berlusconi said Monday Traini's action was "madness". The three-time ex-premier and media magnate said "it's something incomprehensible: only an unbalanced person could do something like that, I don't see anything political because politics doesn't lead to these follies".
It is a good idea to scrub the term 'race' from the Italian Constitution, Berlusconi went on.
"Italians are not racists, we are hospitable," he said on Italian TV. "There is not a general climate of hatred but some people who are out of their heads, like the gentleman in Macerata, who wallow in this atmosphere".
Article 3 of the Constitution says all citizens are equal without distinction of gender, race, language, religion, political opinions and personal and social conditions.
Centre-right Lombardy governor candidate Attilio Fontana, of the League, recently defended himself in a row over his assertion that Italy's "white race is at risk" due to migration, saying that "the Italian Constitution itself speaks about race".
Meanwhile Salvini said Monday being described as a "bad teacher" for allegedly fomenting Traini's racist hatred "recalls the (Red Brigades) BR". "I'm getting a lot of insults," said Salvini.
"I would be careful about using such words (as bad teachers).
"Evoking that period is not intelligent, it's better to comment with your head than your mouth".
A copy of Mein Kampf as well as far-right insignia were found at Traini's home.
He has reportedly confessed to the shooting "in revenge" for Mastropietro's murder.
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