Rome - The Austrian far-right leader, Mr Jorg Haider, cannot be declared persona non grata in Rome whatever his views because Europeans enjoy freedom of movement, the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, said yesterday.
"We definitely cannot declare Haider an undesirable person," Mr Dini said on RAI national radio. "We can say that we do not like him, but there is freedom of movement in Europe." Mr Haider will be received in audience by Pope John Paul II on Saturday and present a Christmas tree from his native province of Carinthia. Strong protests against his presence in Rome have been made by political figures, the Jewish community, associations of second World War partisan fighters against Nazism and wartime deportees.