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House speaker calls slurs against Kyenge 'shameful'
Boldrini voices support for first black minister
30 April, 14:52"Maybe not everyone likes this road we are on, but vulgar racism aimed at someone - mostly on the Internet, but not only - is in no way tolerable," Boldrini said.
"This is not a question of freedom of expression, but incitement of racial hatred, which is a crime, even if carried out on the Internet," she said.
The House Speaker also noted that Kyenge is not the only supporter of proposed reforms to Italy's citizenship law for children born in the country to foreigners that has been criticised by the regionalist, anti-immigrant Northern League.
Kyenge, along with Moroccan-born PD MP Khalid Chaouki, PD MP Roberto Speranza and ex-PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani, have proposed a change to the current citizenship law which dictates that only the children of Italian citizens can automatically become citizens themselves, while those born on Italian soil to non-Italian parents become eligible on their 18th birthday.
A famous example is AC Milan Striker Mario Balotelli, one of Italy's biggest soccer stars and a forward on the national team, who was born in Italy to parents from Ghana but did not become a citizen until he applied when he turned 18.
http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2013/04/30/House-speaker-calls-slurs-against-Kyenge-shameful-_8634836.html
Photo: Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge