Italy’s Salvini puts focus on migration ahead of Sept. vote

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s former firebrand interior minister, Matteo Salvini, is campaigning to get his old job back. Salvini is making a stop Thursday on Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa, the gateway to tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy each year across the perilous central Mediterranean Sea. Salvini is sounding the alarm that the migrant reception center on the island is overcrowded to the breaking point. But both the island’s mayor and international organizations say otherwise. Salvini is know for his hard-line stance against immigration but is now fighting for his political relevance. If the right-wing coalition wins Italy’s Sept. 25 early parliamentary vote, the leader of the party with the most votes would be tapped as premier to form a new government.