Italian footballer Balotelli criticises Italian first black senator; he's got a point by the way

And that’s really an admirable trait in the face of most people trying to be politically correct. Someone has to say what everyone is thinking. If that makes him controversial so be it, after all, what is the value of freedom of speech if it can’t be exercised? Right.

So last Sunday during its general election, Italy elected its very first black senator, an immigrant named Toni Iwobi. Certainly, something to be celebrated. It suggests the Italian people might be looking beyond the colour of the skin to see someone’s capability. The issue, however, as far as the present writer could gather from information available seems to relate to the party of choice on which the newly elected senator, Iwobi, ran. Namely: Italian’s anti-immigration, Lega Party.

Kind of ironic, don’t you think, seeing that Iwobi himself was an immigrant from Nigeria, who moved to Italy in 1976? He was elected a councillor for Lega (the League) in the Lombardy city of Spirano in 1995, according to the BBC.

Well, Balotelli didn’t fail to notice the irony and called out the senator on the issue. “Maybe I’m blind or perhaps they have not told him yet that he is black. But shame!!!” the footballer posts on Instagram.

Some to chew on Mr Senator. If Italy had barred her door to you, where would you have been?

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that no party won a majority in Sunday’s election and that the results show a major shift away from traditional parties. The Eurosceptic, populist Five Star Movement was the biggest single party, with about a third of the vote. Something to do with a gravitation towards nationalist attitude? The present writer thinks so.