Italian opposition politicians have accused Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida of racism for warning against "ethnic replacement" as a solution to the country's demographic problems.
"We must not give in to the idea of ethnic replacement - Italians are having fewer children, so we replace them with others. That is not the right way," the politician from the far-right Fratelli d'Italia party said at a trade union event in Rome on Tuesday. He was referring to low birth rates and the arrival of thousands of migrants in the country.
Stefano Bonaccini, a leading Socialist politician, expressed outrage about the comments on Wednesday. "These are inadmissible words and I hope Lollobrigida apologises for them."
Dario Nardella, the popular mayor of Florence, also criticized the agriculture minister for the remarks on Wednesday. "Defining immigration as an ethnic substitute is an unacceptable expression that takes us back to dark times in our history," he said.
The leader of the opposition, Elly Schlein, was equally fierce in her criticism at a demonstration in Rome a day earlier, describing Lollobrigida's words as disgusting. "They take us back to the 1930s, they are words that smack of white supremacism," the Social Democrat said on Tuesday afternoon, referring to a time when Italy was under authoritarian rule.
Schlein added that she hoped Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the government would distance themselves from these remarks.
Lollobrigida on his part showed himself unimpressed by the criticism, and instead reiterated his position. "Immigration is not the solution to population decline," he said in a video posted on Facebook.
The birthrate in Italy has been in decline for several years. Last year, 392,598 children were born, according to data from the country's statistics agency Istat. That was 7,651 less than in 2021 and fewer than at any time since the unification of Italy in the 19th century.
