‘Shame on you’ — Balotelli blasts Italy’s first black senator

Mario Balotteli, Italian footballer, has attacked
Toni Iwobi, the country’s first black senator.

Iwobi, an anti-immigrant campaigner, was elected in the
industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy.

He is is known for championing anti-migration policies of
League, his political party.

As head of the party’s national committee on immigration, he
helped write the League’s anti-migration platform, in which it
proposed among other things to make it easier to deport migrants,
to use economic incentives to get countries to agree to repatriate
their nationals from Italy, to refuse to take in migrants rescued
by NGOs from the Mediterranean.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Balotelli taunted the
Nigerian-born lawmaker, saying people have not told Iwobi that he
is black.

The Italian striker, who plays for French Ligue 1 side
Nice, wrote: “Maybe I’m blind or perhaps they have not told him yet
that he is black. But shame!!!”

Iwobi left the country for Europe at the age of 22. He was
elected a municipal councillor in 1995.

Defending his hardline stance, Iwobi said he is not opposed to
immigrants who – like himself – come to Italy legally and seek to
integrate; instead, he his problem is with “the clandestine
invasion”: people who seek to stay in Italy illegally.

Mario Balotteli, Italian footballer, has attacked
Toni Iwobi, the country’s first black senator.

Iwobi, an anti-immigrant campaigner, was elected in the
industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy.

He is is known for championing anti-migration policies of
League, his political party.

As head of the party’s national committee on immigration, he
helped write the League’s anti-migration platform, in which it
proposed among other things to make it easier to deport migrants,
to use economic incentives to get countries to agree to repatriate
their nationals from Italy, to refuse to take in migrants rescued
by NGOs from the Mediterranean.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Balotelli taunted the
Nigerian-born lawmaker, saying people have not told Iwobi that he
is black.

The Italian striker, who plays for French Ligue 1 side
Nice, wrote: “Maybe I’m blind or perhaps they have not told him yet
that he is black. But shame!!!”

Iwobi left the country for Europe at the age of 22. He was
elected a municipal councillor in 1995.

Defending his hardline stance, Iwobi said he is not opposed to
immigrants who – like himself – come to Italy legally and seek to
integrate; instead, he his problem is with “the clandestine
invasion”: people who seek to stay in Italy illegally.