Italian Senator Caught in Debacle Over Fake Ambulance Call

ambulance (I was trying to save this until the next time I did a collection of Italian news snippets, but I heard “part two” of the story today and just can’t resist. So, today, you get an Italy Logue two-fer. Enjoy.)

As you may know, President George Bush recently visited Rome, which (as you can imagine) would cause some traffic jams to develop. Security is just that kind of business, and it’s understandable. One Italian senator’s solution to beat the traffic jams, however, raised eyebrows.

Conservative opposition senator Gustavo Selva risked being late for a TV interview on Saturday because streets around the Senate were blocked for Bush’s visit.

So he dialled 118 for an ambulance asking to be rushed to his heart specialist - giving the TV studio’s address.

“I used an old journalist’s trick to get here,” he boasted on live television.

Now, as you might also surmise, the Italian emergency services were not as amused as Selva clearly was by his little trick. Until today, however, I wouldn’t have thought the stunt would have cost him anything more than a little bad publicity and maybe a court appearance (where charges would eventually be dismissed). But today, I read this - oh, yes, it gets better!:

An Italian senator offered his resignation Monday after being criticized for using an ambulance as a taxi, news reports said. … Sen. Gustavo Selva, of the center-right National Alliance party, offered his resignation in a letter to Senate President Franco Marini, the ANSA news agency reported. In the letter, which ANSA reprinted, Selva suggested that he hoped the resignation wouldn’t be accepted.

Before today’s news, I was all prepared to say, “Calling an ambulance to get around a traffic jam? Only in Italy.” Now, however, I’m thinking of something more along the lines of, “Tendering your resignation and in the resignation letter itself suggesting it shouldn’t be accepted? Only in Italy.”