ROME — The head of Italy’s Lega party, Matteo Salvini, has slammed the unelected reigning coalition government for reigniting the nation’s migrant crisis by reopening borders to migrants and foreign NGOs.
In a tweet Tuesday morning, Mr. Salvini, former Italian interior minister, underscored the “2,498 arrivals in September compared with 947 in the same month a year ago,” while noting that in October “landings have already exceeded 700, compared with the 1,007 for the entire October 2018.”
Meanwhile, “the Minister of the Interior does not apply the rules to prohibit entry into Italy of Foreign NGOs,” Salvini noted.
In a separate message, Salvini went on to link Italy’s newly opened borders to “the failure of the Malta immigration agreement,” which means that Italy finds itself alone in facing the new immigration surge.
“With the geniuses of the PD, 5 Stars and Renzi, Italy has gone back to being servile, humiliated and isolated,” Salvini said.
“We look forward to sending them back home, starting October 27, when the Umbrians will give a sound lesson to these incompetents,” Salvini concluded, in reference to upcoming regional elections.
Recent polls of Umbrian voters show center-right candidate Donatella Tesei with a substantial lead over Vincenzo Bianconi, the candidate from the “Civil Pact” comprising the Democrat Party (PD) and the 5 Star Movement.
The more than doubling of new migrant arrivals has also produced a significant uptick in migrant deaths, Mr. Salvini has observed, a phenomenon the pro-immigration forces supposedly abhor.
Last week, Mr. Salvini said Italy’s new open-ports policy resumed by the leftist coalition government is to blame for the estimated 13 or more dead off the coast of Lampedusa.
“These deaths are the results of do-gooders, of ‘there is room for everyone,’ of open ports, of renewed enthusiasm for the smugglers,” Salvini said.