The senior politician who caused outrage by comparing Italy's first black minister to an orang-utan now claims he is under siege from vengeful African spirits.
Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto Calderoli invited national and international opprobrium last year when he said the then Integration Minister, Congolese-born Cecile Kyenge, resembled an ape.He issued only a mealy-mouthed apology and has refused to resign.
In November, Calderoli took legal advice when it became clear he was to stand trial in Brescia, charged with defamation aggravated by racial discrimination. The trial is ongoing.
But now it has emerged that he is also taking mystical advice, after claiming video evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that Kyenge's father, a tribal leader, has put a "macumba" - an African curse - on him as punishment.
After a series of misfortunes since the "orang-utan" comment - six surgical interventions (two life-saving), the death of his mother, fractured bones and, last week, the discovery of a 1.8m snake in the kitchen of his house in Bergamo - Calderoli is in no doubt about the magical nature of the threat, and has consulted a mystic.
Oggi magazine last year filmed Kyenge's father, 75-year-old Clement Kikoko Kyenge, leading a ceremony in the village of Katanga in which he prayed to God for the politician to repent. A less orthodox part of the service saw Kyenge place a photo of Calderoli on an enclosed termite mound, while seeking to communicate with the spirits of the elders.
Calderoli said that after the video emerged and he suffered the health scares, two friends gave him a lucky charm. "Two days later, it broke in two by itself. A wizard has told me that there are terrible forces acting against me."
Calderoli is also facing demands from animal rights activists that he be prosecuted for killing the snake, which they say was a non-venomous, protected species.
