"Has no idea"

Italy: Minister embarrasses himself with Columbus comment

(Bild: AFP/Andreas Solaro)

Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangioliano has embarrassed himself with a statement about the Genoa-born navigator and discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus.

At a cultural event in Taormina, Sicily, the minister claimed that "Columbus wanted to circumnavigate the globe on the basis of Galileo Galilei's theories in order to reach India". However, the polymath was only born in Pisa in 1564, while Columbus began his first voyage to America in August 1492.

"Minister of culture who has no idea"
"For Sangiuliano, Christopher Columbus was not only a great navigator, but also a clairvoyant," said Angelo Bonelli, leader of the Greens. "I would give Sangiuliano a good history book. We have a culture minister who has no idea about history."

In April, the Minister of Culture had already come in for criticism from the ranks of the ruling party "Fratelli d'Italia" (Brothers of Italy - FdI) because he made a faux pas when presenting a new archaeological promenade in the center of Rome.

Times Square "relocated" to London
At the time, Sangiuliano had claimed that Times Square was in London - and not in New York. In a statement, he later attributed the mistake to the emotions of the moment. At the same time, the politician expressed his intention to be more careful in future.

Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, was an Italian navigator in Castilian service who wanted to find a western sea route to India via the Atlantic and reached an island in the Bahamas in October 1492, then other Caribbean islands. Instead of finding India, this was the discovery of America.