Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto
Calderoli said he needs an exorcist to lift a hex placed on him
by the father of MEP Cecile Kyenge, Calderoli told Oggi weekly
in an interview, excerpts of which were published Tuesday.
Calderoli, who is from the anti-immigrant Northern League,
last year likened Kyenge - who was Italy's first black cabinet
member at the time - to an orangutan, triggering a criminal
probe that currently sees him facing charges of defamation
aggravated by racial hatred and discrimination.
Since then, Calderoli has undergone six operations, been
twice in intensive care, broken two ribs and two fingers, and
his mother died, Calderoli told Oggi weekly in the interview to
be published Wednesday.
The run of apparent bad luck culminated with the discovery
of a two-meter snake in his kitchen last week.
"Maybe it's time to send Kyenge's dad a message of
detente," the former minister for reforms and for simplification
under Silvio Berlusconi told the magazine.
"I'm not a superstitious man, but after the macumba (hex)
Kyenge's dad put on me, I've been through hell and high water,"
Calderoli said in a recent Facebook post.
"I need an exorcist," the MP said.
"I could call Bergoglio (Pope Francis), but he may be too
busy inviting immigrants into our homes".
"It seems to me that I am still being persecuted," replied
Kyenge, who will be in court September 30 to testify against
Calderoli in his defamation trial.
"I will see him in court".
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