(18/05/2017)
Anti-immigrant Northern League MEP Mario Borghezio ordered to pay 50,000 euros to Cécile Kyenge MEP over racist Afrophobic speech
The Court of Milan ruled that the Northern League’s Mario Borghezio MEP was guilty of racism for comments he made about the former Italian integration minister and current MEP/Co-President of the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) Cécile Kyenge. Mr Borghezio, in an interview in April 2013, used racist Afrophobic speech to describe the then Minister for Integration Cécile Kyenge during an interview on Radio24.
The decision from the Court of Milan comes after the European Parliament voted to remove Mr Boghezio’s parliamentary immunity last October and said in a resolution that his statements “exceeded the tone generally encountered in political debate and are, moreover, profoundly unparliamentary in nature and violated Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”
Cécile Kyenge, Co-President of ARDI, said: “A member of the European Parliament which shows such contempt and hatred because of the color of my skin has not only insulted me, but the values of our society. This is why the decision of first the European Parliament and now the Court of Milan give an important signal that goes beyond my own personal situation: racism can never be an instrument of political campaigning.”