By Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) – A senior parliamentarian in the anti-immigration Northern League party has likened Italy’s first black minister to an orangutan.

1. Cecile Kyenge, an Italian citizen born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been the target of repeated racial slurs since her appointment as integration minister in April.

Roberto Calderoli, vice president of Italy’s Senate, said on Saturday at a political rally in the northern town of Treviglio, “I love animals – bears and wolves, as everyone knows – but when I see the pictures of Kyenge I cannot but think of, even if I’m not saying she is one, the features of an orangutan.”

He said the success of Kyenge encouraged “illegal immigrants” want to come to Italy, and she should be a minister “in her own country”, according to media reports.

Most of the racist taunts – “Congolese monkey”, “Zulu” and “the black anti-Italian” – have come from far-right groups.

Last month, a Northern League member in the European parliament was expelled from the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group for making racist remarks about her.

Mario Borghezio had attacked Kyenge for wanting to impose “tribal traditions” in Italy as member of a “bonga bonga” government, an apparent play on the so-called “bunga bunga” parties of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Opposition politician Calderoli, twice a cabinet minister under Berlusconi, is often offensive.

In 2006, he was forced to resign as reform minister after displaying a T-shirt mocking the prophet Muhammad during a state news broadcast. Later the same year, after Italy won the Football World Cup, he made racist comments about the French team.

While Italy had won the cup with ethnic Italians, France had lost because its players were “niggers, Muslims and communists”.

On Sunday, politicians, including some from his own party, lambasted Calderoli, with some calling for him to resign as Senate vice president. In an official statement and on Twitter, Prime Minister Enrico Letta said the comments were unacceptable.

“They go beyond all limits. Full solidarity and support to Cecile. Forward with your and our work,” Letta said.

Kyenge is campaigning to make it easier for immigrants to gain citizenship, and she backs a law that would automatically make anyone born on Italian soil a citizen.

Calderoli said he had no intention of resigning and offered only a qualified apology, saying it was “immediately clear to everyone present” that his comment was made in the context of a political rally, Ansa news agency reported.

“I did not mean to offend and if minister Kyenge was offended I am sorry, but my comment was made within a much broader political speech that criticised the minister and her policies,” he said.

Kyenge has not made an official statement, but she told AGI news agency that Calderoli should reflect on how he wanted to represent Italy as a senior Senate member.

“I don’t want to address Calderoli the person, but as a representative of an institution: Reflect on what you want to represent through your language,” she said.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

The European Parliament has stripped far-right French lawmaker Marine Le Pen of her legal immunity so she can be prosecuted over a remark she made about Muslims in 2010. She now faces charges of inciting racial hatred.

The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, lost her right to legal immunity as a European Parliament deputy on Tuesday, which has exposed her to possible prosecution for inciting racial hatred.

Le Pen faces the charges for a 2010 comment comparing Muslim street prayers to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany during WWII.

Last year, prosecutors from France's eastern city of Lyon made the request to override Le Pen's right to immunity - which is traditionally granted to all members of parliament.

A majority of parliamentarians voted to ratify the decision a parliament official said after the hearing. The vote was followed by the parliament's judicial affairs committee recommendation last month that Le Pen's immunity be stripped.

Marine Le Pen was first elected to the European Parliament in 2004. She took over the leadership of France's National Front in 2011, replacing her father, Jean-Marie, who founded the right-wing party.

The National Front promotes conservative social values and has maintained a reputation for outspokenness against Muslim immigration to France. During the 2012 presidential election, the party garnered nearly 18 percent of the vote.

Not backing down

On Monday, Le Pen repeated her 2010 comment.

She said her crime was to have "dared say what the French think."

"I will go to court with my head held high to explain that there have to be people in this country who tell the French the truth," she told LCI television, calling the charges a "thought crime."

If found guilty, she would face a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a possible 45,000 euro ($59,000) fine.

hc/dr (Reuters, AFP, dpa)