Napolitano denies Calderoli's accusation

(ANSA) - Rome, October 11 - Former president Giorgio Napolitano said Tuesday before the Senate that he had not called the Italian parliament "unworthy" in arguing recently that the government's overhaul of Italy's political machinery, to be put to a referendum December 4, will cure ills such as the undue recourse to emergency decrees for ordinary legislation. "To say that I called the Senate and the Parliament 'unworthy' is not only a deliberately false statement, but it is entirely opposite to the sense and the actual words of that speech of mine," he said in reference to a claim by the anti-immigrant Northern League senator and Senate deputy speaker Roberto Calderoli that this was what the former president had called the government institutions in a response to a youth at Classe Dem, the Democratic Party's academy, on October 1. The president had on that occasion been speaking about an abundant use of decrees and large amendments that allegedly undermine the parliament. In response, Calderoli said that "I am not a slanderer by profession and I do not intend to offend anyone. I have respect for the institutions but I am also a politician and when someone enters politics - even if he is a former president but gets involved in partisan politics - he must be open to debate. To give and take."