Him: “I could not defend myself, it does not even happen in the minister’s home country”
UKIP leader: “We are against all forms of racism and are happy that the matter has been resolved”
At the end of it all Mario Borghezio was permanently expelled from his political group at the European Parliament. Excuses made during the last plenary meeting were useless; statements addressed to Cecile Kyenge, the Minister for Integration – whose appointment was called “a shitty choice” by a “bunga bunga” government – were deemed too severe even by his own colleagues in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group. Nigel Farage, the British Independence Party (UKIP), was the one pressing the most for his expulsion since he had given an ultimatum: either him or us.
“As already announced at the last EFD group meeting, we would have remained in the group only on the condition that Borghezio would be expelled” said Farage. The leader of the British Eurosceptics then explained: “We have given a clear signal that the racist comments are unacceptable. The UKIP is opposed to all forms of racism and we are satisfied that the matter has been settled by rapid and definitive removal of colleagues from the group. ”
But Borghezio disagrees: “They are funded by the City, but I as head of the delegation in EFD in the special Anti-mafia Committee in the European Parliament always go up against the financial superpowers and tax havens,” he told Ansa (News Agency). And then the Lega Nord turned the accusations of racism against Farange himself: “In Edinburgh he was seriously attacked by the Scottish separatists shouting ‘racist-racist’ … The fact they attack me makes me laugh.” The MP, sustaining “never having been asked” by the group, unhappy perhaps because of past statements about the minister, also added “throw out one without listening doesn’t even happen in the country where Kyenge comes from, perhaps it happened in the Soviet Union or in Chile, but not in democratic countries.”
