Italy’s Foreign Minister apologises for Italian police officer’s ’unspeakable’ insult to Maltese ambassador in Rome

Italy’s Foreign Minister has apologised, on behalf of the Italian government, after an Italian police officer issued an “unspeakable” insult to Malta’s Ambassador to Rome Vanessa Frazier, calling her a “night whore”.

The Italian police officer's insult directed at Maltese ambassador to Italy Vanessa Frazier

”We are truly a moronic people - made fun of by someone who was a ‘night whore’ in Malta,” the police officer, who is also secretary of the independent police union of Rovigo, in Veneto, wrote on Facebook.

His comment came after Frazier last week told the media in Italy that “The good Lord put Italy between Malta and North Africa”, in a clear reference to Lampedusa’s shorter distance from Africa than Malta.

Frazier’s statement was a retort to what Italian Home Affairs Minister Matteo Salvini had said earlier this summer, when, in relation to his promised tougher stance towards regulating migration, he remarked that “The good Lord put Malta closer to Africa than Sicily”.

In a press statement, Rome’s embassy in Malta said that “In reaction to the unspeakable insults directed towards Her Excellency the Maltese Ambassador to Italy in Rome, Vanessa Frazier, from a private social network profile, the Italian Embassy in Malta would like to inform that Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi has called his counterpart Carmelo Abela to express the Italian government’s apologies.”

Likewise, it said that the Italian Ambassador to Malta, Mario Sammartini, was expressing his solidarity with his Maltese colleague.