Merkel visits laid off hotel waiter

DPA/Rome

German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted on paying a visit to the former head waiter at the Italian hotel where she is on vacation, after learning that he had been laid off, local media reported yesterday.

Merkel and her husband have for years spent their Easter holidays in Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples. But this year, she did not find 59-year-old Cristoforo Iacono to welcome her at her Miramare hotel.

“After finding out that he had been fired, she came home to visit him, she sat down and had lunch with us,” Iacono’s daughter, Marianna Iacono, told the Naples edition of the La Repubblica newspaper.

“Mrs Merkel has known my father for ages, even before she became prime minister. We were very happy to have her in our home,” she added.

Italy is going through a deep recession, and German-inspired austerity policies that the country has adopted over the past years to reduce its debt have often been blamed.

Stefano Caldoro, the leader of Campania, the region around Naples, said in a video message to Merkel that she was welcome in Ischia, but also urged her to “look around” and see how much Italy was suffering from its economic crisis.

“Should we incite anti-German feelings? No, we must fight them” but current European Union policies of “absolute austerity”, as backed by Berlin, “cannot continue”, Caldoro said.