Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S) bigwig Luigi Di Maio was slammed Wednesday for saying
Romania was exporting 40% of its criminals to Italy while Italy
was exporting jobs to Romania.
Gianni Pittella, the European Parliament caucus leader for
the Socialists and Democrats, accused Di Maio, the Lower House
deputy Speaker of saying "idiotic" things.
Di Maio responded by saying his assertion was supported by
Romanian authorities.
"There's an inarguable fact, that 40% of those sought on
international warrants issued by Bucharest are in Italy," Di
Maio said.
"I'm not saying that, then Romanian justice minister Catalin
Predoiu said it in 2009 and the data were confirmed the other
day by Messina prosecutor Sebastiano Ardita.
The chair of the Romanians in Italy association, Eugen
Tertelac, described Di Maio's statements as "populist claims"
for "electoral ends" which "could ruin relations between our two
countries".
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