'Charlie Hebdo' cartoon sparks fury

A Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting victims of the Italian earthquake victims as pasta dishes has sparked outrage in the country which is still mourning the nearly 300 people who died in last week's tragedy.

The drawings in the current edition of the French satirical weekly depict bloodied victims of the quake. The words "penne tomato sauce" appear above a picture of a bloodied and bandaged man, while a woman with burns is described as "penne gratin." To their right, a pile of bodies under layers of rubble is titled "lasagne." The cartoons are captioned "Earthquake Italian style".

The quake struck central Italy on August 24, with the small town of Amatrice bearing the brunt. The town is the home of the all'amatriciana pasta dish. The town's mayor, Sergio Pirozzi, who dramatically declared "the town is gone" on the morning after the August 24 earthquake, was baffled by the cartoon. "How do you draw a cartoon about the dead!" he said. "I'm sure this unpleasant and embarrassing satire does not reflect French sentiment."

"The drawings are repugnant," said Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando. "I don't think it is useful to comment further as I think that would produce precisely the sought after effect... that is to create a scandal," and draw attention to the cartoons, he added. Italian Senate leader Pietro Grasso said that he respected "the freedom of satire and of irony," but added that "I am free to say that all this is disgusting."

Outcry on social media

While many Italians showed solidarity with the magazine after the 2015 attack, writing "Je suis Charlie Hebdo" (I am Charlie Hebdo) on social media, the cartoon in the magazine's current edition was called "terrible," "in bad taste," and "disrespectful" on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere.

Many just wrote, "I'm no longer Charlie Hebdo."

Fury on social media reached such a pitch that the French embassy in Rome was moved to issue a statement emphazing that the government did not share the magazine's sentiments and could not be held responsible for them. The statement said the cartoon "absolutely does not represent" France's position, and is a "caricature by the press (and) the freely expressed opinions are those of the journalists."

New cartoon as response

Charlie Hebdo responded to the controversy by publishing yet another earthquake cartoon on its Facebook page that refers to the fact that, in the past, organized crime has been found to control various Italian construction companies:

The follow-up vignette portrays someone half-buried in the rubble and reads: "Italians, it's not Charlie Hebdo who has built your homes, it's the mafia!"

rb/eg (Reuters, AFP)