A poll revealed the Italian public are behind the migrant and security decree drafted by populist Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, despite several left-wing mayors across Italy resisting the measures.
The results, released by polling firm Tecnè, shows that 63 per cent of Italians back the decree whilst only 26 per cent agree with the left-wing mayors such as Luigi de Magistris of Naples and Dario Nardella of Florence who have said they will resist its implementation, Il Giornale reports.
Eight percent of the respondents said that while they did not agree with the law, it should be respected all the same, and 11 per cent said they had no opinion on the issue.
The mayors have not only resisted the migrant decree, with Florence mayor Nardella saying he would not “bow” to the law which he claimed “expels asylum-seekers” and also offering to take in migrants from NGO migrant transports that Salvini has previously turned away from Italian ports.
Salvini’s Tough Border Policy Stops 1,500 Illegal Migrants on Eastern Border https://t.co/6N2soaAcqM
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Mayor of Naples Luigi de Magistris said earlier this week that the migrant transport NGO Sea Watch was welcome to dock in his city, saying: “I have already asked the commander, then he will make the assessments based on the weather and many things, that if he directs the bow towards Naples, the port of Naples, now, while we speak, it is open.”
The offer was countermanded by Salvini in his role as interior minister, who reiterated that Italian ports were closed to migrant transport vessels — a policy that has managed to reduce the number of migrants entering Italy by 80 percent and has contributed to there being far fewer drowning deaths in the Mediterranean Sea in 2018 than in previous years, likely as a result of sea crossings being deterred.
The poll also found that Salvini’s League (Lega) still holds the top spot among Italy’s political parties with 31.8 per cent support, although the figure has dropped slightly from last month’s 33.2 per cent.
The result of the survey still puts the League well ahead of their coalition partner, the Five Star Movement (M5S), which polled at 24.9 per cent.
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