When Muammar Gaddafi landed in Rome for a peace summit, the photo pinned to his chest left Italy’s leaders speechless… 🇱🇾
For decades, Gaddafi demanded that Italy pay billions in reparations for its brutal colonial occupation of Libya in the early 1900s.
In 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi finally agreed to a $5 billion settlement to secure Libyan oil and gas deals, inviting the dictator to Rome for his very first official state visit.
Italian diplomats rolled out the red carpet at Rome’s Ciampino Airport, expecting a polite diplomatic ceremony.
Instead, when the door of the Libyan jet opened, Gaddafi stepped out in full military regalia with a large black-and-white photograph pinned directly to his chest.
The photo showed Libya’s national hero, Omar Mukhtar, bound in heavy chains right before Italian fascist troops hanged him in 1931.
To make sure the insult couldn’t be missed by television cameras, Gaddafi brought Omar Mukhtar’s frail, elderly son along on the flight—forcing Italian leaders to shake the man’s hand on the tarmac while standing next to the photo of his father’s executioners.
Over the next three days, Gaddafi turned the rest of the Italian state visit into pure chaos.
He bypassed luxury hotels to pitch his bulletproof camel-hair tent inside Rome’s historic Villa Doria Pamphilj public park.
He showed up hours late to parliamentary meetings, leaving Italian lawmakers waiting in empty halls until several politicians stormed out in protest.
Meanwhile, back home in Tripoli, Gaddafi cruised around his compound inside a custom, one-of-a-kind electric Fiat 500 beach car built in Italy—painted in Libyan green with no doors and a silhouette of the African continent stamped in gold on the hood.
👇 If a foreign leader stepped off a plane in your country wearing a photo like that on his chest, would you cancel the meeting on the spot? Drop your thoughts in the comments!