Last year Jean Asselborn ended a comment to Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, with “Merde alors!”, which can be translated as “for crying out loud!” or “bloody hell!”

Salvini had just compared African migrants to slaves and argued that Italy did not need migrants to have children in his country during an EU meeting in September, prompting Asselborn’s angry response.

“Merde alors!” was then adopted as a catchphrase by Sportunity, a Luxembourg NGO that promotes social integration through sport. Sportunity started selling merchandise--including coffee mugs, T-shirts and trainers--emblazoned with the explicative through a local retailer.

The campaign has yielded €10,000, which Sportunity said on Monday would allow the outfit “to launch new inclusive sports programs for refugees and locals in the nearest future”.

Asselborn attended a ceremonial cheque presentation ceremony on 6 May: