Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, one of Prime Minister Giorgia Maloni’s closest allies, sparked outrage on Tuesday when he warned against the “ethnic replacement” of Italians by migrants, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“We cannot accept the idea of ​​ethnic replacement: Italians have fewer children, so let’s replace them with others. This is not the way forward,” said Francesco Lollobrigida, a member of the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party, which is led by Giorgia Maloney and also her son-in-law.

The Fratelli d’Italia party won the 2022 election, promising to revive Italy’s low birth rate and reduce migrant arrivals across the Mediterranean.

The statements of Francesco Lollobrigida, made during the congress in Rome, were severely criticized by the opposition parties.

Ellie Schlein, secretary of the center-left Democratic Party, condemned the “repulsive statements” as “infused with the theory of white supremacy.”

In addition, she noted, Francesco Lollobrigida made these statements at a time when Italian President Sergio Mattarella was attending a commemoration at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.

Opponents accuse Giorgia Maloney’s coalition, which includes the (far-right) League led by Matteo Salvini, of stoking anti-migrant sentiment in Italy.

Some 32,700 people arrived on Italian shores in 2023, compared to 8,400 in the same period in 2022. The rise prompted Prime Minister Maloney’s coalition government to declare a six-month state of emergency last week.

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