Word: italianizer
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Margherita Boniver, an Italian Member of Parliament and longtime foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, chastised the "French radical-chic" efforts to block extradition. "The fact that Carla Bruni [helped] Petrella avoid extradition to Italy is something grave," adding there appeared to be "a sort of convergence" with the Battisti case. "It's all unprecedented," Boniver told reporters...
...most serious issue has been Bruni's reported involvement in two recent cases of blocked extraditions of convicted Italian leftist terrorists, who had taken refuge in France under a special amnesty law signed by then-President Francois Mitterrand in the wake of Italy's so-called "Years of Lead" violence in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruni admitted in October that she and her older sister had urged Sarkozy to block the scheduled extradition of Marina Petrella, who was suffering from severe depression and weight loss. Sarkozy, who'd come to office vowing to force the return of convicted Italian terrorists...
...leftist Cesare Battisti, convicted of four murders in the 1980s. Battisti had also long taken refuge in France, where he became a successful author of mystery novels, and a cause celebre among Parisian leftist intellectuals. He was arrested in 2007 by French police, but managed to flee to Brazil. Italian media reports last week claimed that during the French First Couple's recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, Bruni had lobbied Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to block the extradition...
...Sunday, making her first appearance on Italian TV since marrying Sarkozy, Bruni vigorously denied any involvement in the Battisti case, calling reports that she'd brought the case up with Lula "slanderous." Still, French novelist Fred Vargas, who has been leading the campaign in support of Battisti and has managed to speak to top Brazilian officials, has said that she'd lobbied Bruni directly about the case. (See pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni celebrating Bastille...
Berlusconi allies might have other reasons to be bitter with Bruni, who took a public swipe at the Italian Prime Minister in November. At that time, Berlusconi had cracked an offensive joke just after Barack Obama's election victory, saying the incoming American President was "young, handsome and well-tanned." Bruni told one reporter the following day that she was "glad to be French." (See Berluscon's worst gaffes...