MANFREDONIA – «The joke I uttered in which I stated ‘we are used to crematorium ovens’ was absolutely not intended to be associated with the tragedy of the holocaust, but only to refer to the high temperatures of our territory». This was stated in a note by the newly elected municipal councilor of FdI in Manfredonia, Giuseppe Marasco, regarding the “video” – he specifies – of a public political demonstration in which, at a certain point, one can hear a “joke” from him.
The councilor apologizes “if this misunderstanding has offended the sensitivity of many, with the widest reservations for my protection”.
The video he refers to is the one recorded in the electoral committee of the mayoral candidate Ugo Galli who will have to challenge Domenico La Marca in the run-off. In the video you can see the Apulian regional councilor Giannicola De Leonardis (FdI) underlining how hot it is in the committee. A moment later a voice is heard saying the phrase about the crematorium ovens and then many people laughing.
When asked before the apology note, Marasco said that he was not the one who said that sentence and that the video had been manipulated, which is why he had filed a complaint.
The episode is already triggering reactions from the opposition. “Is this the ruling class that Manfredonia will have with Galli as mayor?” asks Ubaldo Pagano, a member of the Apulian Democratic Party, speaking in a note about a shocking phrase from Giuseppe Marasco, just elected to the city council on the list of the Brothers of Italy. «If believing you can get a laugh by referring to the Shoah is already miserable, actually doing so makes you reflect deeply on the conscience of certain people – he concludes – exponents of the right proudly remember the darkest years of our history.”
