League official resigns, apologizes for racism

(ANSA) - Treviso, September 23 - A local official with the regionalist Northern League party resigned his position and apologized Tuesday after he posted racist language and images on his public Facebook profile and then deleted them a few hours later due to a public outcry.
    "What do you throw a drowning gypsy? His wife and kids," wrote Andrea Della Puppa, a League secretary in the village of Maserada in the north-eastern Veneto region, during the weekend.
    On Tuesday, he said he had resigned the night before and apologized to both the Roma community, referred to as gypsies in his post, and to former integration minister Cecile Kyenge, Italy's first black member of cabinet.
    In a separate Facebook post, Della Puppa had quoted Kyenge on the importance of welcoming immigrants, along with a photo of Hitler with a flamethrower and a caption reading "Let them have it, by God!".
    Della Puppa said Tuesday that he understood his "mistakes" in creating the posts. "I am sure that you will agree with me that the best signal, in a constructive sense, to give on this matter is my understanding of my mistakes and the acceptance of this apology," he wrote in a note.