Careful wording or abject dhimmitude? “Libya/Italy: Calderoli ‘sorry’: Berlusconi confident migrant coooperation will resume,” from ANSA (thanks to Insubria):
(ANSA) – Rome, May 9 – An Italian government minister whose reappointment was opposed by Libya on Friday apologised for an incident during his last term which many observers have linked to the north African country’s decision to halt cooperation on stopping immigrants.
”I’m sorry for the consequences (of the incident),” said Roberto Calderoli of the regionalist Northern League, who was forced to resign from Silvio Berlusconi’s last government after sporting a T-shirt with one of the notorious Danish cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.
A Libyan charity run by one of Muammar Gheddafi’s sons last week strongly urged Berlusconi not to reappoint Calderoli because of the stunt, which led to riots outside the Italian embassy in Tripoli in which 11 protesters were shot by police.
It said the consequences could be ”disastrous”.
But the premier, fortified by a bipartisan stance that Libya should not interfere in Italy’s internal affairs, went ahead and appointed the League heavyweight to a new post aimed at hacking back Italy’s jungle of laws.
In the wake of Libya’s Thursday night statement on stopping immigrant cooperation – a statement in which the cartoon incident was not cited – Calderoli said Friday his cartoon gesture had been ”misunderstood”.
The freshly sworn-in minister went further than previous claims that he had only wished to defend free speech, calling the display of the offending cartoons ”a message of peace” between Christianity and Islam.
Speaking on Berlusconi’s flagship private TV channel, the minister voiced the hope that ”there won’t be problems with Libya”.
”It’s over; for me the incident is closed,” said the minister, who upset Muslims again last September when he suggested pigs should be brought in to thwart plans for the construction of a major mosque in Bologna.
Berlusconi and his foreign minister, Franco Frattini, played down the affair and said they were sure it would soon be cleared up.
”I’m confident we’ll be able to clarify the situation and reassure the Libyan authorities,” said Berlusconi….
What will they be doing to reassure us?