Italian PM Matteo Renzi calls meeting after politician who likened first black minister to 'orang-utan' escapes racism charges

Senators voted not to bring racism charges against Roberto Calderoli

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in Rimini has called a meeting following the result of the vote (EPA)

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has reportedly called a meeting of his senators after politician Roberto Calderoli escaped charges of racism for likening the country’s first black minister to an “orang-utan”.

Calderoli, a member of Italy’s far-right Northern League party, made the slur against Cecile Kyenge at a rally in 2013, and told the crowd that when he saw pictures of the Congolese-born minister he “could not help but think of the features of an orang-utan.”

Despite calls for Calderoli to resign, the Deputy Senate Speaker refused to step down but was charged with defamation aggravated by racial discrimination by the prosecutor’s office in the northern Italian city of Bergamo.

Italian senator Roberto Calderoli, has sparked outrage after he compared the country’s first black government minister to an orang-utan (AP)

Last week senators voted against Calderoni facing racism charges.

Prime Minister Renzi told L’Unita: “There will be a meeting of the group at the Senate after the Calderoli-Kyenge vote,” the Local reported.

Kyenge, a member of the Democratic Party, was serving as integration minister at the time of the slur and is now an MEP.

Following the result of the vote, Kyenge said the Democratic Party showed “serious incoherence” by allowing Calderoli to escape racism charges.

Cécile Kyenge said she will now take the case to the European Court of Justice (Getty Images)

Kyenge said she will now take the case to the European Court of Justice.

Calderoli’s racist slur sparked protests at the time, but also sparked further insults, with some even throwing bananas at Kyenge during a public appearance.

Last year Calderoni made a bizarre claim that Kyenge’s father, a tribal leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, had put an African curse on him as punishment for the insult and he was experiencing a run of bad luck as a result: “A wizard has told me that there are terrible forces acting against me,” he told Oggi magazine.