'UNACCEPTABLE!' – Italian MEP calls for EU bureaucrat to RESIGN after 'ABSURD' comment

Ignazio Corrao, MEP for 5SM told Blate night politics programme that comments from EU’s Budget Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, about Italy electing populists were “not acceptable”.

Mr Oettinger told the German media the market crash following Italy’s election should serve as a warning to the rest of Europe about electing populists.

Mr Corrao slammed the Budget Commissioner, and said: “We want to see Germany behave as a country that really cares about the countries.”

He accused the German of “referring to the Italian and Italian people not as a partner country, but a country that can be talked down to”.

He furiously told the BBC: “That is not acceptable.

“We cannot accept this kind of behaviour, We have to change this relationship with Germany, and they have to change their relationship with the rest of Europe.”

The MEP called for Mr Oettinger to resign, or else be fired by the European Commission.

He said: “What Mr Oettinger said is very serious.

“It’s absolutely absurd that a Commissioner could say something like that.

“What we expect from Junker is to expel him from the Commission.

“Either that, or his reassignment.”

Speaking to Deutsche Welle television, Mr Oettinger said he hoped Europe took example from Italy in not electing populists.

The formation of the Italian government collapsed earlier this week when the populist nomination for finance minister – Paolo Savona – was rejected, and fresh elections were confirmed for the autumn.

Savona is a staunch Eurosceptic.

Mr Oettinger said: “My worry, my expectation, is that the coming weeks will show that the markets, the government bonds, Italy’s economy, could be so badly hit that these could send a signal to voters not to elect populists from the left or right.

“This was linked to the possible formation of a government.

“I can only hope that this plays a role in the election campaign by being a signal not to hand governing responsibilities to the populists.”

He later apologised for his comments.