The white race could die out, warns Italian politician

IMMIGRATION has been thrust to the fore of Italy’s election campaign after a politician from a Right-wing party warned that “the white race” was in danger of dying out.

The debate over race, integration and multiculturalism is shaping up as a key issue in the March 4 election, in a country that has rescued around 600,000 migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean in the past four years.

Attilio Fontana, a prominent politician from the Right-wing Northern League, said the “white race” in Italy could face extinction unless the number of migrants entering the country was drastically reduced.

“We have to decide if our ethnicity, if our white race, if our society continues to exist or if it will be cancelled out,” said Mr Fontana, the league’s candidate to become the next governor of Lombardy.

His remarks were condemned by the centre-left but Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Northern League, endorsed his views, adding: “We are under attack. Our culture, society, traditions and way of life are at risk.”