Make fun of one of Italy's symbolic dishes, pizza, in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic? A scandal, for Rome. A satirical video broadcast on Canal +, in the Groland program, provoked the ire of the Italians on Tuesday, leading the French television channel to apologize.
On this video, rebroadcast by Italian media with the warning message "Warning, the following images could offend your sensitivity", we see a pizza maker coughing and spitting green mucus on a pizza out of the oven.
The "Corona pizza", "the new Italian pizza that will go around the world", says the voiceover. The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, castigated false advertising "in bad taste and unacceptable".
"It is deeply disrespectful"
Italy is the European country most affected by the coronavirus epidemic, with 79 dead and just over 2,500 people infected.
Countries, such as France or Great Britain, have announced cases of contagion directly linked to trips to the peninsula or to contacts with Italians on their soil.
This is the anteprima of a video broadcast of a French TV and a consideration of the taste and the inaccessibility. Understanding the ...
Gepostet von Luigi Di Maio am Dienstag, 3. März 2020"I understand the satire," but "making fun of Italians in this way, with the emergency around the coronavirus that we are facing, is deeply disrespectful," said Luigi Di Maio, on Facebook.
The deleted sequence
For the Minister of Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, this video is "shameful and horrible". "I activated the diplomatic channels to report the content broadcast, I expect Canal + to immediately remove it and apologize," she added.
Le scuse della francese Canal + per il video vergognoso che hanno mandato in onda erano doverose. #LItaliafabene. I nostri prodotti sono sani, sicuri, di altissima qualità. No è accettabile che qualcuno approfitti della situazione per legittimare prathe di concorrenza sleale. pic.twitter.com/vXvstWFXRD
- Teresa Bellanova (@TeresaBellanova) March 3, 2020The Minister was soon heard. "Canal + apologizes to our Italian friends following the broadcast of a short sequence of very bad taste, especially in the current context, making a caricatural reference to Italy during a satirical program" , said a spokeswoman for Canal +.
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“This sequence is already removed from all reruns and replay of the chain. Canal + is sending a letter of apology to the Italian Ambassador to Paris this afternoon, ”she added.