Letta in a statement today denounced Roberto Calderoli's words as "inacceptable" and "beyond every limit." Calderoli, the Senate's vice-president and a leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, later said he was making a joke and meant no offense to Cecile Kyenge, a Congolese-born doctor who is the country's immigration minister.
The Northern League isn't in the government but has been the closest ally of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right party, which is Letta's main partner in the coalition government.
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