If parliamentary elections were held in Italy now, the national conservative and Eurosceptic Brothers of Italy (FdI) would end up in second behind, the anti-immigration Lega Nord. This follows from a survey of electoral preferences conducted by SWG. Currently, 20.1 percent of voters would vote for the Brothers of Italy party, while Lega Nord has the support of 21.4 percent of Italians.
The Brothers of Italy party is now the only opposition parliamentary party because everyone else supports a government of national unity led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Chairwoman Giorgia Meloni hopes that this position will gain more supporters who are dissatisfied with the current cabinet. In the previous elections in 2018, the FdI won just over 4 percent of the vote.
The FdI is known for its anti-immigration attitudes and has also rejected in advance the electoral alliance being prepared by Matteo Salvini’s party and the Forza Italia party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. According to the survey, Forza has the support of about 7 percent of voters. The election is to be held in Italy in 2023.
The left-wing Democratic Party (PD) and the protest Five Stars Movement (M5S), which until recently formed a governing coalition led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, would receive 19 percent and 16 percent of votes, respectively, according to the poll. The Italian electoral preferences appear to reflect an increase in illegal migration, especially from African countries.
Frontex: The number of detained refugees in the Mediterranean is rising
Italy is one of the main gateways for migrants to Europe. They are most often from Tunisia and Libya. Since January this year, 15,000 migrants have arrived on Italian shores, about three times more than in the same period last year, the AFP news agency pointed out.
According to Frontex, which is tasked with protecting the EU’s external borders and the Schengen area, the number of refugees illegally crossing the European Union’s external borders in the first four months of this year has reached 36,100. This is about a third more than in the same period last year when the migration flow decreased due to travel restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title image: Migrants, wearing face masks to help curb the spread of COVID-19, stand on the tug boat Asso Trenta bringing them back to land after their transfer to a bigger ship was aborted due to rough sea conditions in Lampedusa, Sicily, Tuesday, May 11, 2021.(AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
