German-Italian Tensions

No, the Germans aren’t threatening something so prosaic as taking the German-speaking region of South Tyrol in Northern Italy, rather something far more inflammatory is afoot. In the Tuesday online edition of Der Spiegel a popular German sportswriter, Achim Achilles. wrote an extremely satire-laden piece on the “parasitic” Italian soccer team, replete with insults of Italian culture, the country, Italian women and even Italian mamismo -- the sacred mother-son relationship. This article and it’s contents were splashed across Italy, including at La Repubblica. Der Spiegel was so overrun by outrage, to defuse the situation it has pulled the story and inserted an apology in German, Italian and English at the URL where the article originally appeared. The apology claims that the article had not been vetted for content. O yeah, I believe that. Should Germany and Italy each make it past their next opponents they will meet in the semi-finals on July 4th in Dortmund. Such a match-up would undoubtedly provide some entertaining fireworks.