Populist Senator Matteo Salvini has questioned how many other terrorists may have entered Europe illegally through Italy after it was revealed the Nice church attacker came to the country by sea last month.
Senator Salvini has demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese over the fact that the Nice terror suspect Brahim Aoussaoui had landed in Italy illegally and subsequently disappeared after arriving in the city of Bari just three weeks before the attack.
“How many are to disappear like him after landing? I think there are thousands of them. Yet there are mugshots and footprints of each of them,” Salvini said. According to a report from Il Giornale, the Tunisian also spent time aboard a quarantine ship.
Interior Minister Lamorgese, meanwhile, denied her left-wing government bore any responsibility for the attack, claiming: “This is an attack on Europe, there is no responsibility on our part.”
Lamorgese went on to attack the security decrees implemented by Salvini when he was Italy’s Interior Minister, which slashed illegal immigration, saying: “I also want to say that the security decrees created insecurity because 20,000 people had to leave the reception overnight. And we have tried to keep in mind the need for security of the country, not by dispersing everyone in the national territory.”
Salvini quickly replied to the allegations, saying: “I am speechless. With the ports open, an Islamic terrorist landed in Lampedusa, identified in Bari but left free to flee to Nice to slaughter and behead. And according to the Interior Minister, it’s my fault. You’re shameless. Salvini’s fault? Lamorgese, resign.”
Italy has seen a number of migrants escape from migrant centres under quarantine in recent months after landings began to surge after a period of few arrivals due to the spread of the Wuhan virus.
In the town of Siculiana in July, it was revealed that migrants were simply allowed to roam the streets after police were commanded not to force them back into centres under lockdown once they had escaped.