A councillor belonging to Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party called today for the country's first black minister to be raped, sparking an outcry and her expulsion from the party.
"Won't someone rape her, just to make her understand what victims of this terrible crime feel? For shame!" Dolores Valandro, a councillor in Padua in Northern Italy, wrote on Facebook alongside a photograph of African-Italian Immigration Minister Cecile Kyenge.
Valandro was apparently reacting to an article on a website called "all immigrant crimes" which detailed an alleged attempt by a Somali in Genoa to rape two Romanian girls, Italian media reports said.
Kyenge, an eye doctor and Italian citizen originally from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been subjected to a barrage of racist attacks since being appointed minister in February.
She has attracted heated criticism from the League for plans to push for legislation that would allow children born in Italy to immigrant parents to get automatic citizenship instead of waiting until 18 to apply.
The League immediately expelled Valandro from the party.
