Italian leaders vow to expel migrants
New gov’t vows to crack down on illegal immigrants, including as many as 80,000 Filipinos who lack work documents
ROME— Italy’s new populist leaders on their first day in office pledged to create jobs and expel migrants. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini warned migrants to pack their bags, affirming a campaign promise to deport at least 500,000 illegal migrants, including 100,000 in his first year in office. There are more than 100,000 documented Filipinos in Italy with almost as many illegal immigrants.—
ROME— Italy’s new populist leaders commemorated the founding of the Italian republic by attending a pomp-filled military parade on Saturday and then promised to get to work creating jobs and expelling migrants.
“The free ride is over,” League leader Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new interior minister, warned migrants at a rally in northern Italy. “It’s time to pack your bags.”
The remark appeared to be an affirmation of Salvini’s campaign promise to deport at least 500,000 illegal migrants, including 100,000 in the first year.
Filipinos in Italy
According to Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, there were 113,686 documented Filipinos living in Italy in 2008, plus illegal immigrants num- bering as many as 80,000.
The pledge of mass deportations was a reminder that Italy has a staunchly anti-immigrant, right-wing party in its governing coalition and that the European Union will face a new partner governing its fourth-largest economy.
First day in office
Italy’s new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte mostly kept quiet on his first day in office on Saturday, while his two powerful deputies took center stage in setting the tone of the new government’s policy.
Conte, a political novice, was sworn in on Friday as the head of a government of ministers from the antiestablishment 5Star Movement and the farright League, ending months of uncertainty since elections in March.
But Conte was a compromise candidate between 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and the League’s Matteo Salvini—both of whom are now his deputy prime ministers.
The 53-year-old academic also inherited several issues, including the financial travails of companies such as Ilva and Alitalia, a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada and a key EU summit at the end of the month, as well as the thorny question of immigration.
Immigration is the bugbear of Salvini, the 45-year-old leader of the anti-immigrant, anti- Islam League.
Salvini announced on Friday that he would visit Sicily to see the situation for himself at one of the main landing points for refugees fleeing war, persecution and famine across North Africa and the Middle East.
Republic Day
Conte attended a military parade alongside President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday, but the new prime minister has issued few public statements since being appointed.
On Saturday, he did post on Facebook that he had spoken with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron and would meet the two leaders at the G7 summit, where he will be a “spokesman for the interests of Italian citizens.”
Conte has also opted to keep the country’s intelligence services under his personal control.
Deputy Prime Minister Di Maio, who is serving as economic development minister, also took to Facebook, calling for “entrepreneurs to be left alone.”
“Employers and employees in Italy must not be enemies,” he said, promising “I will not disappoint you.”
‘The state is us’
On Saturday evening, 5-Star held a rally in Rome to celebrate “the government of change.”
Di Maio told the crowd that “from today, the state is us.”
Former comic and 5-Star’s founder Beppe Grillo, rang a bell in front of the crowd, saying the sound “marks the fracture between a world that is going away and a new one that is arriving.”—