“It is considered the most violent, dangerous race, capable of killing for a handful of coins”. That is Italian newspaper Il Tempo leads on Tuesday one of the most vitriolic articles on Romania published in Italian media ever.

The article, headlined “Un’etnia sempre in cronaca nera” (An ethnic group always present in crime section of newspapers), is a long list of names called on the Romanian people.

It says Romanians living in Italy have “prostitution, credit card cloning, clandestine immigration” among their “basic activities”. And the author believes Romanians “are not afraid of anything, despise even the life of children and women. They always operate in groups to fulfil their criminal activities”.

The article refers to Romania’s coming EU accession and notes the practice of many young Romanian women to marry rich Italians in order to receive Italian citizenship and maybe part of their wealth.

“They are the Romanians,. they are the citizens of Romania who for years terrorize the country”, the article concludes.

Unofficial statistics say there are some one million Romanians living and working in Italy. Officially, the number of legally settled Romanians there is 300,000, while some other 300,000 have submitted documentation in order to stay there legally.

Contacted by HotNews.ro, representatives of the Romanian Foreign Ministry said they would submit a reply to the Italian newspaper.