Italy’s anti-immigration rhetoric is paying off for the populists

It wasn’t long ago when Italy used to be referred to colloquially as “the sick man of Europe,” a country whose economic situation was stuck in the doldrums, whose political system was always a crisis away from collapse, and whose political class was divided into those who were ineffectual and those who were corrupt. The Italians still have their systemic problems, no doubt. Italy has accumulated a pile of national debt (£2bn) that is larger than its GDP (£1.48 trillion). Its unemployment rate is over 10 per cent, higher than the EU’s collective average, and about three in ten young Italians can’t find work. And yet the “sick man of Europe” monicker is so last decade; with Matteo Salvini, Luigi Di Maio, and Giuseppe Conte now running the government in Rome, Italy is now “the troublemaker of Europe.”

Nowhere is this more the case than Europe’s perpetual migration headache. In Berlin, Paris, and Brussels, the talk about illegal immigration is about finding a unified European solution that is as durable as it is humane.