A PROPOSAL to introduce racial segregation on trains, trams and buses in Milan provoked an outcry from Italian opposition politicians yesterday.
The scheme was put forward by a representative of the antiimmigrant Northern League, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's main ally in government.
Matteo Salvini, the league's secretary in Milan, told a rally to launch his party's European election campaign that he wanted "seats or carriages reserved for the Milanese" on local public transport.
Dario Franceschini, leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic Party, said: "One's thoughts go back to the affair of Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to give up her place on the bus and inspired Martin Luther King's struggle."
Mr Salvini later tried to downplay the row, insisting: "It was just a provocation to say the residents are now in a minority and, as such, need safeguarding." - (Guardian service)