Italian town marks ousters

» The leaders of this bluecollar town marked an antimigrant milestone with a pistachio layer cake last week. To commemorate what they said was the 200th migrant expelled from their town, they wrote the number on top with green frosting.

As Italians vote in national elections Sunday, many of them share the migration-skeptic swagger of the right-wing leaders of Sesto San Giovanni. Italy is struggling to accommodate the more than 620,000 migrants who have arrived on its shores since 2013, and a new sentiment is gaining force: Boot them all out.

Ex-prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose centerright coalition appears to have the best shot at victory Sunday, has promise to defuse what he called a “social bomb ready to explode in Italy” by deporting 600,000 people. His coalition partners, including a group descended from the remnants of the Fascist Party, are even more vociferous toward the migrants, most of whom are from sub-saharan Africa.

Italy’s choice Sunday could ripple throughout Europe because the country is the continent’s main migrant gateway.

Sesto San Giovanni has volunteered its crackdown on migrants as a blueprint.

“Sesto has become a model, a point of reference for the nation, that is showing you can rule and make changes against urban decay,” said Mayor Roberto Di Stefano, 40, a member of Berlusconi’s center-right Forward Italy party.

The town of 83,000, which abuts Milan, was once called the Stalingrad of Italy for its communist leanings.

It had elected left-wing leaders since World War II, until the anti-immigrant campaigners swept into office last summer.

The new leaders captured the sentiment of voters at a moment when unemployment remains stubbornly high and Italians are asking why they are spending money to support migrants when they themselves feel vulnerable.