An Antisemitic insult was hurled at dissident members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party. Speaking ahead of a confidence vote on a set of government proposals presented by Berlusconi, Senator Giuseppe Ciarrapico accused those within the party who are against the measures of being “traitors.”
The group of dissidents is headed by Senator Gianfranco Fini, a former neo-fascist who has shifted to more traditional right-wing views over the past two decades. He is currently Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the parliament of Italy.
A 2003 visit by Fini to Israel, where he denounced Nazi and Fascist crimes in World War II, sparked controversy. Posters of him wearing a kippah, the traditional Jewish skullcap, at Yad Vashem and branding him a traitor subsequently appeared in Rome.
Senator Ciarrapico asked the assembly, “Has Fini’s group already ordered kippahs?” He added, “He who betrays once, always betrays.”
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