Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova said Thursday she had "fought" for a regularisation of migrant farm workers to save them from exploitation by gangmasters and than had had the "strength" to cry after achieving the measure despite stiff opposition inside and outside government.
Bellanova, a former farm worker, has been ridiculed by the centre-right opposition for crying over what they described as an unacceptable amnesty for the migrant farm hands, as well as for home helps and carers.
"It's true. I cried. I worked hard, I fought, and in the end I wept. I had the strength to weep - yes, the strength - because I fought a battle for something I believed in from the start, because I closed the circle on a life that is not just my own, but is also of so many women and men who like me worked in the fields," she said.
Bellanova, a member of former premier Matteo Renzi's centrist Italia Viva (IV) party, had to overcome staunch opposition from the senior government partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), as well as loud protests from the anti-migrant opposition League party.
She openly wept as she announced the migrant six-month regularisation at a press conference unveiling the government's 55-billion-euro coronavirus 'relaunch' decree Wednesday night.
League leader Matteo Salvini said "minister Bellanova cried for the problems of the poor migrants to be regularised, when one would have expected commitment and suffering fro Italian citizens in difficulty".
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