Northern League politician Gianluca Buonanno told parliament that too much money was being given to immigrants in Italy.
He advised Italians to “become a bit darker” if they wanted to take advantage of the country’s benefits system.
He said: “At the end of the day, maybe in this country in order to achieve anything we need to be a bit darker.
“I say we can all put make-up on and make ourselves a bit darker, and then we can all go around painted black and say we want the same help that non-EU citizens get.”
Nichi Vendola, head of the left-wing SEL party, tweeted: “Can someone tell the racists that we’re in the third millennium and are a civilised country, despite them. The racists think they’re in Alabama or Mississippi of a half-century ago or in South Africa during apartheid.”
Burqa ban
Northern League politicians have often been accused of making xenophobic remarks.
As mayor of the northern Piedmont town of Varallo Sesia, Mr Buonanno once banned Muslim women from wearing the body-concealing swimsuit known as a burkini.
He was also embroiled in a legal battle with the authorities in 2013 after he put up a billboard banning women from wearing the burqa and niqab.
In November he attempted to enter a court wearing a burqa to highlight his case (see video below).
He also once accused Italy’s first black minister, Cecile Kyenge, of using her position to “favour negritude”.
Last year, the Northern League leader, Roberto Calderoli, compared Ms Kyenge to an orangutan during a political rally in the northern town of Treviglio.