Italy claims to be the friendliest country in Europe

Just days after over one thousand African workers were forced to flee a southern Italian town as victims of violent attacks an Italian MP has made the bold assertion that his is Europe's most welcoming country.

European Affairs Minister Andrea Ronchi said that Italy did not have any race-related issues and blasted fellow European Union member states that Ronchi feels are unable to deal with clandestine immigration and heap their problems on the Italian state. Speaking at a meeting in La Granja, Spain with other European Affairs ministers Ronchi said simply that there is no racism in Italy and that only uneducated people would make such claims. He even offered to provide a complimentary sight-seeing tour of the country for those who claim there is a racial question. Anyone who still believed that racism existed in Italy was just stupid according to Ronchi.

Ronchi did make it clear that Italy was in the grips of what he termed a violent phenomenon, that of illegal immigration.

Last week saw locals and immigrants clash violently in Rosarno which left dozens on both sides injured and more than 1,000 immigrants to flee the region. This caused the United Nations to suggest that Italy had deep rooted and serious racist issues with migrant workers frequently targeted. The UN, along with various human rights groups, voiced their concern over the way immigrants are treated in the poorer southern regions which are more susceptible to immigration. While the UN called on Ronchi and his party to do more to address the problem the Italian, in turn, accused the EU of abandoning his country and leaving the ills of a continent at its feet.