MILAN: A court in the northern Italian city of Bergamo is investigating Senate Vice President Roberto Calderoli, a leading member of the Northern League party, for defamation after he likened the country's first black minister to an orangutan, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
Calderoli said Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge, an Italian citizen who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, had "the features of an orangutan" at a political rally near Bergamo on Saturday.
Calderoli, who is in the opposition, has apologised and sent a bouquet of roses to Kyenge, but he has refused to step down as one of the top institutional figures in the Senate.
No comment was immediately available from Calderoli.
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