The Italian government protested on Tuesday against a satirical video of Groland broadcast on the French television channel Canal, featuring a new pizza: the Corona pizza, embellished with coronavirus mucus.

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On this video, rebroadcast by the Italian media with the warning message “Warning, the following images could offend your sensitivity”, we see a pizza maker coughing and spitting green mucus on a pizza coming out of the oven. “The new Italian pizza that will go around the world,” says the voiceover.

The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, spoke out against this false advertising, judging it “in bad taste and unacceptable”. Italy is the European country most affected by the coronavirus, with 52 dead and more than 2,000 people infected.

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“I understand the satire”, but “to make fun of Italians in this way, with the emergency situation around the coronavirus that we are facing, is deeply disrespectful”, underlined Luigi Di Maio, in a message Facebook.

Over 3,100 people have died worldwide from the Covid-19 outbreak and over 90,000 have been infected. Countries, such as France or Great Britain, have announced cases of contagion directly linked to trips to the peninsula or to contact with Italians on their soil.