Cartoon minister quits
@ 2006-02-19 - 21:52:14Roberto Calderoli, the Italian Minister for Reform, has resigned after wearing a t-shirt with one of the Danish Muhammad cartoons on a TV show. Newspaper reports of his antics sparked protests outside the Italian consulate in Bengasi, Libya, in which 11 people died and dozens were injured.
Calderoli is a member of the Northern League whose anti-immigrant position is well known and can be summarised without much caricature as ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ (the policy advocated by leader Umberto Bossi against boats suspected of carrying illegal immigrants to Italy). Clearly for him wearing the t-shirt was a way of provoking a reaction which then has allowed him to denounce fundamentalists and paint himself as fighting against ‘those who want to usurp western civilisation’ (as he said in the paper the other day).
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Great to see someone writing about politics. And coming from Italy, all the more interesting. He desrved to go; his stunt was a 'worldwide' embarrassment. Keep writng.
Check out my 'On the Move'.
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