A Northern League politician
offered to pay compensation Friday and perform community service
within the Roma community after he lost a civil case over
comments about the community on a radio station.
Leaders of the Roma, sometimes known as gypsies, said they
would consider the offer from Mario Borghezio, who represents
the League in the European parliament.
Borghezio was found civilly liable for racial
discrimination and aggravated defamation over comments made in
April 2013 on 'The Mosquito' radio program.
He said that he was sorry, and would not "limit myself to a
commitment of compensation but I am also available in my city to
do volunteer work in the Roma camps," he said.
His proposal is to be evaluated by three Roma associations
that were all parties in the civil case, which the judge
adjourned to late June.
Borghezio was recorded calling Roma people "scum" on the
radio program while advocating destruction of their homes.
The comments came during an interview that followed a visit
to the Lower House of the Italian Parliament by eight young Roma
people who had been invited by Speaker Laura Boldrini to mark
'International Day of Roma and Sinti'.
Borghezio during the radio program said that "a good
percentage" of thieves "are Roma" and that their community was
as suited to employment as "water with oil."
Friday, he said those comments were "satirical" and not
criminal.
"In my life, when I'm wrong I always paid," he said in
court.
"Here I am ready to compensate the injured parties but I
don't think I should be punished criminally," he added.
"My only fault is that, at times, I say out loud what some
politicians try to hide through hypocrisy".
Borghezio is no stranger to controversy.
At about the same time as the Roma incident, the Speaker of
the European Parliament said Borghezio brought "shame" on the
institution for his racial slurs against Italy's first black
cabinet minister, Cecile Kyenge.
Martin Schulz noted that a petition "signed by 130,000
people" had called for sanctions against Borghezio after he
claimed Kyenge would seek to "impose her tribal traditions from
the Congo".
Kyenge, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
has risen through the ranks of Letta's centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) since she came to Italy in 1983.
Later that year, Borghezio also denounced the "voodoo-type
rituals" he said Kyenge likely believed in due to her country of
origin.
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