Following criticism from his coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, that he should focus less on migrants and more on the Mafia, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini revealed that crime has reduced by 15 per cent between 2018 and 2019.
The populist Lega leader, who heads the police as Interior Minister, revealed that according to police statistics, crime had decreased by 15 per cent with murders down by 12.2 per cent and attempted murders down 16.2 per cent, Il Giornale reports.
Other crimes were down as well, come even more drastically such as sexual violence which had seen a 32.1 decrease and robberies which were down 20.9 per cent.
The comments from Salvini came in reaction to a statement by Five Star Leader and co-deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio who said, “Rather than terrifying migrants or visiting walls, the owner of the Interior Ministry should take care of fighting the mafia.”
The statement over visiting walls was likely a swipe at Salvini’s recent trip to Hungary where he once again met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to speak about cooperation within the European Parliament and the European Union as a whole.
“I’ve done more committees for order and security in Naples than in all the other Italian cities,” Salvini said and then went on to refer to the notorious Neapolitan Camorra Mafia saying, “It is clear that the Camorra is an ugly beast and it will take time to defeat it.”
Salvini said he was also still committed to the arrests of “mafia, murderers, drug dealers and criminals in general,” but noted that it would require more police officers and that to tackle the issues would require thousands of new uniformed personnel.
While crime is falling overall, the number of crimes committed by migrants has reached such a level where one in three suspects in various criminal cases come from migrant backgrounds.
On the issue of halting migration, many sources, including the European Union border agency Frontex, have admitted that the anti-mass migration policies of Salvini have reduced new landings over 90 percent and as a result have also led to a sharp decline in the number of drowning deaths in the Mediterranean sea.