The Italian Minister of Agriculture, close to the Prime Minister, warned against “ethnic replacement” of Italians by migrants.
Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, one of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s closest allies, caused a scandal on Tuesday when he warned against “ethnic replacement” of Italians by migrants.
“We cannot resign ourselves to the idea of ethnic replacement: Italians have fewer children, so let’s replace them with others. This is not the way to go,” said Francesco Lollobrigida, member of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party led by Giorgia Meloni and brother-in-law of the Prime Minister.
The Fratelli d’Italia party won the elections in 2022 with the promise of reviving Italy’s low birth rate and curbing the arrival of migrants through the Mediterranean Sea.
The outraged opposition
Statements by Francesco Lollobrigida, made during a congress in Rome, were stigmatized by the opposition parties.
Elly Schlein, secretary of the center-left Democratic Party, condemned “disgusting comments” having “smells of white supremacy”.
In addition, she noted, Francesco Lollobrigida made these remarks when Italian President Sergio Mattarella was attending a commemoration at the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz.
Opponents accuse Giorgia Meloni’s coalition, which includes Matteo Salvini’s (far right) League, of fueling anti-migrant sentiments in Italy.
Some 32,700 people arrived on Italian shores in 2023, up from 8,400 during the same period in 2022, an increase that prompted Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government to declare a six-month state of emergency last week.
