The Atlantic

It’s the Right Wing’s Italy Now

The new interior minister is calling for more deportations of migrants.
Source: Remo Casilli / Reuters

PARIS—In his first trip after becoming pope in 2013, Francis visited Lampedusa, the tiny Italian island off Sicily that had become the first point of arrival in Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants, and called for a “reawakening of consciences” to their plight. In his first trip since he was named Italy’s new interior minister, Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party, went to Sicily and called for more deportations.

“Seven thousand deportations seems too few. At that rate we’ll solve the problem in 80 years,” Salvini said. “We need to keep these desperate people

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