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Europe
Schroeder Demands Apology for Berlusconi Nazi Jibe
2003-07-03
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded a full apology on Thursday from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after he compared a German lawmaker with a Nazi concentration camp guard. Ouch!!!
"This comparison is inappropriate and completely unacceptable," Schroeder said at the beginning of a speech in the German parliament. "I expect that the Italian prime minister will apologize fully for this unacceptable comparison," he said to applause. The German government on Wednesday called in the Italian ambassador to Schroeder's office to explain the comments.

Berlusconi made the remarks in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg after a speech presenting Italy's priorities for its six-month presidency of the European Union, which began on Tuesday. He later said he did not mean to offend German feelings, but he declined to retract the comment or apologize. The German media slammed the comments on Thursday, stirring the row with some strong remarks of their own.

Franz Josef Wagner, a commentator for Germany's best-selling Bild daily, wrote an open letter to Berlusconi in which he praised Italian food and the country's rich cultural heritage, but said the Italian leader had done his country no favors: "You, Silvio Berlusconi, are currently the richest, most influential and most controversial Italian. But spaghetti Berlusconi won't feature on any menu. Spaghetti Berlusconi will not conquer the world. Spaghetti Berlusconi doesn't taste good."
The stinging pasta references were burned into Berlusconi's brain forever - Oh the humanity of this tirade!! Who can stop the German press!!!!!!! Panzers of the pen!!!!
The respected heavyweight daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said the slur threatened rocky time ahead for Europe.
What - more protest in Europe - say it ain't so - if half the "activists" were in the military they could conquer Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory- Maybe!
"If the coming months are characterized by crashing, sweeping attacks and zealous hate campaigns, it's going to be difficult to complete the meddling, backbiting, whiningwork Europe has ahead of it," it said.
Oboy. Another politcal tempest in a teapot. Berlusconi was tactless and somewhat less than funny. The Fritzies are overly sensitive about what happened 60 years ago. Both ignore the fact that the SA wore brown shirts because the Italians had already bought all the nifty black ones.

I do think it's all a nice change from predigisted memospeak, though. If you say what you think, instead of what you're supposed to think, at least it shows you're thinking, if only of a snappy comeback. Bild's comeback was something less than Wagnerian, by the way. I'd expect to see the Italian press produce of flood of Verdiesque schnitzel wisecracks. Bild should try and find a writer named Mozart to out-spaghetti them at their own game...

Sometimes a nice verbal food fight is better than spending all one's time droning on about "harmony" and "shared goals" and "humanitarian principles." It clears the air, and then we can all go on to more important things — perhaps even things of substance.
Posted by:Fiddler

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