Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro
admitted Tuesday that purportedly racist comments he made on
television had been a "mistake" but said he found media coverage
of the incident "diminishing".
On Saturday, Brugnaro told Televenezia local private
broadcaster the city needs "a grand educational plan for our
kids...because we're different from people living in banana
trees".
"What I mean is we have 1,000 years of civilisation behind
us," he went on.
The comments sparked accusation of racism, to which he
replied in two tweets.
"No negative thoughts directed at anyone in particular, just
urging parents to be more involved in their children's
education. We're not savages!" he tweeted.
"I repeat and confirm we must educate our children because
we don't live on trees like primitive people," he tweeted later.
Brugnaro backtracked on Tuesday.
"Obviously I made a mistake, but I find dwelling and
providing coverage on the issue diminishing," Brugnaro said.
Brugnaro, who hails from Silvio Berlusconi's center-right
Forza Italia (FI) party, won a run-off vote last summer with
backing from the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League
party.
As soon as he took office in June, he called for the
government to impose a naval blockade against migrants "who are
departing from all over Africa as we speak".
In August, he had a run-in with Sir Elton John - who owns a
home in Venice and has two children with his partner David
Furnish - after the British musician accused him of being
"boorishly bigoted" in banning books about homosexuality from
the city's schools.
"Beautiful Venice is indeed sinking, but not as fast as the
boorishly bigoted Brugnaro," the British star said.
"Fora i schei (cough up the money)" Brugnaro tweeted back
in Venetian dialect, meaning "I challenge you to give real
resources to save Venice".
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