An Italian opera buffa

摘要

After learning that he had been named as Italy's next commissioner in Brussels, Rocco Buttiglione was quoted as saying: "I may be a nobody in Italy. But in Europe I will be someone." Prophetic—if not in the way he envisaged. A soft-spoken academic with a gracious manner and an engagingly toothy smile, Mr Buttiglione is scarcely the stuff of which scandals are made. Yet, for the past two weeks, he has been at the centre of a storm in Brussels. On October nth, he became the first commission nominee to be rejected by a European Parliament committee, when the civil-liberties committee voted 27-26 to reject his nomination to the justice and home affairs portfolio. The majority's ire was roused by his comment, in response to the committee's questions, that "I may think homosexuality is a sin, but this has no effect on politics unless I say homosexuality is a crime."