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| Europe |
| Leader blames culture gap for food fight |
| 2005-07-05 |
| By Mark Felsenthal UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Cultural differences were to blame for a food fight between Finland and Italy and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may have overestimated his charms, according to Finnish President Tarja Halonen. Halonen said Finland was still "a bit astonished" over comments last week by Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi who told Italians he'd had to "endure" Finnish food and then added insult to injury by boasting he'd used "playboy tactics" to talk Halonen into ceding a new European food agency to Italy. "Of course, we were a bit astonished concerning this speech of Mr Berlusconi and we have tried to find out what the facts were," Halonen told reporters on Thursday after addressing the U.N. Economic and Social Council. "We have different kinds of cultures. I think Finnish food is very good," she said. Berlusconi also may have given his powers of persuasion more credit than they deserve for the transfer of the food agency, Halonen said. In what she called "a gentleman's agreement," she said the two nations broke a deadlock over where the food office should go by locating the European Chemical Agency in Helsinki. "As a lady I am used to working with different men and I don't always notice their charm. But I am very much a woman of equality," she said. But while Halonen answered questions about the flap with a smile, Finns were not amused by Berlusconi's comments. Finland's union of agricultural producers (MTK) said members would avoid products such as Italian olive oil and wine, and the Italian ambassador was summoned by the Finnish government to express its surprise at Berlusconi's comments. It's pretty sad when these great icons of European leadership don't have anything better to do than criticize each others cuisine. |
| Posted by:Deacon Blues |
| #1 Damn you got it Db. For the record the Italians are correct tho. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-05 16:42 |