Now Eu Justice Hopeful Slams Single Parents

Italy's would-be European Commissioner, Rocco Buttiglione - already notorious for his view that homosexuality is a sin - has caused fresh outrage this weekend by telling a conference in northern Italy that single mothers are 'not very good'.

The comment was reported amid growing protests that the arch-Catholic politician, a friend of the Pope and vehement advocate of the Vatican's most rigid family values, is not the right man to be put in charge of justice and civil rights issues for the European Union.

'Children who don't have a father, but only a mother, are children of a mother who is not very good,' Buttiglione was quoted as saying during a conference on Friday.

'Children who have only a father are not children because a man alone can only produce a robot, not a child,' he added during a discussion about the role of the family and the difference between the United States and Europe at a conference in Saint-Vincent.

'This is a fundamental issue because the old continent is at risk of extinction with so few children,' said Buttiglione.

His suggestion that single mothers are bad mothers raised howls of disbelief from liberal politicians and defenders of equal opportunities and piled pressure on the new Commission chief, José Manuel Barroso, to review his choice of justice commissioner before a meeting with MEPs on Thursday.

Barroso has until now insisted that he has confidence in Buttiglione, but if the new EU chief fails to defuse the growing crisis he could find outraged MEPs voting down his entire new commission in a 27 October vote. The European Parliament cannot vote out an individual commissioner, only the entire commission.

'I don't know what Mr Buttiglione is playing at,' said Italian MEP Emma Bonino, a former commissioner for humanitarian affairs.

'I have thought from the beginning that Buttiglione is not suitable for the job [of justice commissioner],' Bonino said on the phone from Cairo. 'Not because of what he thinks, but because of what he does,' she added.

'I don't think Barroso can act now as if nothing has happened,' she went on. 'He has to invent something to solve this crisis. Otherwise, this is not the best way to begin his five-year commission.'

Buttiglione suggested on Saturday his comments had been taken out of context and insisted that single mothers have his full support. While Europe has been shocked by Buttiglione's comments, in Italy he has enjoyed the support of centre-right colleagues, who claim he is the target of left-wing anti-Catholicism in the rest of Europe.

Buttiglione says he is a victim of discrimination and insists he must have the right to express his personal opinion on morals and family values in a democratic continent based on freedom.