MATTEO SALVINI

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is vowing to put Italy's national interests first in tackling soaring energy costs.

The country has chosen its most right-wing government since the Second World War. Will political dysfunction temper extremism?

Italy’s former premier Silvio Berlusconi is making his return to Italy’s parliament nearly a decade after being banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction.

The shift in Italy follows a similar right-wing victory in Sweden and recent gains by the far right in France and Spain.

Italy’s left warned of “dark days” ahead and vowed to keep Italy in the heart of Europe. It followed a right-wing victory in Sweden and recent gains by the far-right in France and Spain. The center-left Democratic Party and its allies had around 26% support, while the populist 5-Star Movement — which had been the biggest vote-getter in the 2018 parliamentary election — saw its share of the vote halved to 15%. But he may face an internal leadership challenge, with Meloni’s party outperforming the League even in its northeastern stronghold. “The trend that emerged two weeks ago in Sweden was confirmed in Italy,” acknowledged Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta, calling Monday a “sad day for Italy, for Europe.”"We expect dark days.

Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort and vigilance after one of the bloc’s founding members swung far to the political right.

Italy’s lurch to the far right immediately shifted Europe’s geopolitical reality, placing a euroskeptic party in position to lead a founding member of the European Union and its third-largest economy. Right-wing leaders across Europe immediately hailed Meloni’s victory and her party’s meteoric rise as sending a historic message to Brussels. Near-final results showed the center-right coalition netting some 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy snatching some 26%. He may also face an internal leadership challenge after the League suffered an abysmal result of under 10% of the vote, with Meloni’s party outperforming the League in its northeastern stronghold. French politician Marine Le Pen’s party hailed the result as a “lesson in humility” for the EU.

Near-final results show a party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, has swept Italy’s national elections.

A party with neo-fascist roots has won the most votes in Italy’s national election, setting the stage for talks to form the country’s first far right-led government since World War II, with Giorgia Meloni at the helm as Italy’s first female premier.

Italy’s lurch to the far right immediately shifted Europe’s geopolitical reality, placing a euroskeptic party in position to lead a founding member of the European Union and its third-largest economy. Right-wing leaders across Europe immediately hailed Meloni’s victory and her party’s meteoric rise as sending a historic message to Brussels. Near-final results showed the center-right coalition netting some 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy snatching some 26%. Salvini has made clear he wants to return to the interior ministry, where he imposed a tough anti-migrant policy as minister. French politician Marine Le Pen’s party hailed the result as a “lesson in humility” for the EU.

In a victory speech, far-right Italian leader Giorgia Meloni struck a moderate tone after preliminary results in Sunday’s national election showed her Brothers of Italy party leading contenders. Projections based on votes counted from nearly two-thirds of the polling stations in Sunday’s balloting indicated Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party would win some 25.7% of the vote. In the last election, in 2018, Meloni’s party took 4.4%. Meloni’s party was forged from the legacy of a neo-fascist party formed shortly after the war by nostalgists of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Meloni kept her Brothers of Italy party in the opposition, refusing to join Draghi’s unity government or Conte’s two coalitions that governed after the 2018 vote.

"Italy moves to the right,'' Italian daily La Stampa headlined its front page in an early Monday edition. Her main campaign allies and likely coalition partners are anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini and conservative former Premier Silvio Berlusconi. That compared to some 19% by the closest challenger, the center-left Democratic Party of former Premier Enrico Letta. Meloni's strong showing heartened her allies in Europe, intent on shifting the European Union's politics sharply to the right. In the last election, in 2018, Meloni's party took 4.4%.

An alliance of right-wing parties in Italy, led by Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, was set to win Sunday's election, according to exit polls.

ROME — (AP) — Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s electoral alliance appeared to hold a wide lead in Italy’s national note, an exit poll on state television suggested shortly after polls closed on Sunday evening. The publication of opinion polls is banned in the two weeks leading up to the election. Polls before then indicated that far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, was the most popular. Their leaders, Salvini, Berlusconi and 5-Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, a former premier whose party is the largest in the outgoing Parliament, saw Meloni’s popularity growing while theirs were slipping. Meloni kept her Brothers of Italy party in the opposition, refusing to join Draghi’s unity government or Conte’s two coalitions that governed after the 2018 vote.

Italy held elections on Sunday which may move the country to the Right, politically.

Italians were voting on Sunday in an election that could move the country's politics sharply toward the right during a critical time for Europe.

Italians were voting on Sunday in an election that could move the country's politics sharply toward the right during a critical time for Europe.

Before publication of opinion polls were banned 15 days ago, far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party, with its neo-fascist roots, led in popularity, suggesting Italians were poised to vote their first far-right government into power since World War II. But pollsters predicted turnout could be even lower than the record-setting low of 73% in the last general election in 2018. But the three populist parties in the coalition boycotted a confidence vote tied to an energy relief measure. She further distanced herself from Salvini and Berlusconi with unflagging support for Ukraine, including sending weapons so Kyiv could defend itself against Russia. In the final days of the election campaign, Salvini criticized Russian atrocities in Ukraine.

The center-left did not agree on teaming up with left-leaning populists or centrists, which is a big disadvantage in Italian elections. But populist leaders saw their parties' support steadily slipping both in opinion polls and in various mayoral and gubernatorial races since the last national election in 2018. In July, 5-Star Movement head Giuseppe Conte, right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi yanked their support for Premier Mario Draghi during a confidence vote. Her far-right Brothers of Italy, a party with neo-fascist roots, won just over 4% in the 2018 election. Since the last election, a reform has been passed aimed at streamlining Parliament and make its operation less costly to taxpayers.

A Sunday parliamentary election will determine who next governs major industrial economy and key NATO member Italy.

ROME — (AP) — Italians will vote on Sunday in what is being billed as a crucial election as Europe reels from repercussions of Russia's war in Ukraine. Recently, a right-wing party in Sweden surged in popularity by capitalizing on peoples' fears about crime. Meloni's main alliance partner is right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini, who blames crime on migrants. Yet Meloni, the sole major party leader to refuse to join Draghi's coalition, is polling the strongest. Italy's tiny Greens party, a campaign partner of Letta, is forecast to capture barely a few seats in Parliament.

Italian voters cast ballots on Sunday in an election that has been billed as crucial as Europe reels from the repercussions of war in Ukraine.

After Sunday elections, Giorgia Meloni could be the next politician to move from the fringes to a position of power.

Her Brothers of Italy party has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity since the vote in 2018, when it polled just over 4%. ____ENRICO LETTALetta, the 56-year-old leader of the Democratic Party, Italy’s main center-left force, is Meloni’s chief election rival. ___MATTEO SALVINISalvini, the 49-year-old League party leader, had been the unchallenged face of right-wing leadership in Italy until Giorgia Meloni's far-right party took off. When neither then-5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio nor right-wing leader Matteo Salvini budged on who would become premier, Conte got the job. Early in his second stint as premier, Italy became the first nation in the West to be slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main candidates in Italy's general election on Sunday to elect a new Parliament and determine who next governs the country include both familiar names and lesser-known ones.

With Italy's election looming, the main leader of the Italian center-left alliance says the gains of a Swedish populist party with neo-Nazi roots is one more indication that fear is driving the far-right's growth in Europe.

MODENA, Italy — (AP) — As far-right leader Giorgia Meloni 's push to become Italy's first female premier gathers momentum, the country's fractured left is offering voters a contrasting style of feminist politics. The 45-year-old Meloni's Brothers of Italy Party consistently has led polls going into the Sept. 25 parliamentary vote, putting her in position to be tapped as premier. “Not all female leadership helps women,’’ Schlein told an audience of several hundred at a weekend campaign rally at the Festa dell’Unita in Modena. She faults Italy’s current political class with creating “paternalistic” policies that fail to consult the people they affect. But that effort failed miserably to bring into being an electoral coalition on the left for this vote.

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s is gathering momentum in her push to become Italy’s first female premier.

Italy’s Democratic Party leader is galvanizing center-left voters, trying to confound opinion polls that indicate a right-wing alliance is headed to triumph in this month’s parliamentary elections

Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has led her first election campaign rally in the Adriactic port city of Ancona.

The far-right candidate who aspires to be Italy’s first female premier has come under fire from opponents for posting a pixelized video that purports to show a woman being raped by an asylum-seeker.

Giorgia Meloni is riding a wave of popularity that next month could see her become Italy’s first female prime minister and its first far-right leader since World War II.

The country’s right-wing coalition unveiled a policy manifesto that can essentially be summed up as patriotic talk and a cocktail of misguided tax cuts.

The leader of Italy's Democratic Party is warning of the threats to European democracy posed by Italy's right-wing nationalistic parties.

Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of next month's elections, is insisting she won't be a danger to democracy if she becomes the country's next premier.

The implosion of the center-left coalition in Italy isn’t likely to ease the tensions between the right-wing leaders.

Italy’s firebrand former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has put migration at the center of his electoral campaign during a visit to Lampedusa.

A judge in Italy has ordered the suspect in the death of a Nigerian street vendor to remain jailed as an investigation continues.

The European Union’s top court says maritime authorities cannot impound ships involved in search-and-rescue work just because they think the vessels might be overloaded due to the number of migrants aboard.

Italians are debating whether a Nigerian street vendor could have been saved from a fatal attack by an enraged Italian man that played out in public as bystanders watched.

Police investigator Matteo Luconi told Italian news channel Sky TG24 that onlookers called police, who responded after the suspect had fled and attempted to administer aid to the victim. Luconi told Sky TG24 the assailant lashed out after the vendor made “insistent” requests for pocket change. Amanza gave a different version of what happened, saying the attacker became infuriated when Ogorchukwu told the man's companion she was beautiful. “This compliment killed him,’’ Amanza told The Associated Press. “My condemnation is not only for the (crime) but it is also for the indifference,'' Ciarapica told Sky.

Police in Italy arrested an Italian man in the slaying of a Nigerian vendor whose brutal beating death on a busy beach town thoroughfare was filmed by onlookers without any apparent attempt to intervene physically. Video footage of the attack has circulated widely on Italian news websites and social media, eliciting outrage as Italy enters a parliamentary election campaign in which the right-wing coalition has already made immigration an issue. Right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, who is making security a plank of his campaign, also expressed outrage over the death, saying “security has no color and ... needs to return to being a right.”

A humanitarian organization’s maritime rescue ship is sailing to the Italian mainland to disembark 438 migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya

Italy's president is urging Italians to reinvigorate their democracy as the country notes the 100th anniversary of an attack that paved Benito Mussolini's path to power.

The Italian political class has had a long, controversial dalliance with Moscow. This is not the time to rekindle that affair.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s decision to turn in his resignation after his “unity” coalition broke apart dramatically in Parliament was the latest step in a political crisis that could take months before a new government is solidly in place to lead the European Union’s third-largest economy

APTOPIX Italy Politics Italian Premier Mario Draghi waves to lawmakers at the end of his address at the Parliament in Rome, Thursday, July 21, 2022. By Thursday afternoon, about the only certainty was Italians are going to the ballot box on Sept. 25, some six months early. Its leader, Giuseppe Conte, drafted by the 5-Stars to be premier in back-to-back governments, had joined his successor's “national unity coalition." But with Salvini itching for years to become premier, Meloni might face a Salvini-Berlusconi deal to make the League leader the next premier. The dramatic and rapid unraveling of Draghi's ‘’unity" coalition is likely to leave its mark on Italy's political landscape.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi's decision to turn in his resignation after his “unity” coalition broke apart dramatically in Parliament was the latest step in a political crisis that could take months before a new government is solidly in place to lead the European Union's third-largest economy.

Italy is headed for an early election after its president accepted Premier Mario Draghi’s resignation and decided there was no possibility for cobbling together another government.

PM Mario Draghi's government nears collapse after a populist coalition party withdraws support.

Italy’s political landscape has shifted after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio formalized his departure from the 5-Star Movement.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the specter of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back Moscow’s aggression.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi meets with U.S. President Biden this week in Washington as Europe faces another “whatever it takes” moment, with war raging on its eastern flank in Ukraine.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is gathering her party’s troops, not to mourn her loss in the presidential election but to plot out a victory in France's parliamentary election in June.

The mayor of a Polish town has called out the leader of Italy’s right-wing League party for his pro-Kremlin views, derisively calling Matteo Salvini a “friend" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The mayor of a Polish town bordering Ukraine publicly called out the leader of Italy’s right-wing League party for his pro-Kremlin views on Tuesday, derisively calling Matteo Salvini a “friend” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Przemysl Mayor Wojciech Bakun challenged Salvini during a news conference at the train station in Przemysl, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have arrived since Russia launched its war against Ukraine on Feb. 24. The mayor pulled a T-shirt from his jacket showing Putin's face and the words: “Army of Russia.”

The war in Ukraine has forced Rome to re-examine its entanglements with powers inimical to Europe.

Leaders now face the challenge of squaring their previously stated admiration for the Russian leader with an attack that’s being broadly condemned.

The sixth round of voting ended inconclusively on Friday, sending political parties into yet more intense negotiations to come up with a viable candidate to replace President Sergio Mattarella, whose term expires next week. The president, who is 80, has repeatedly said he doesdn't want another seven-year stint as head of state. Until 2013, no president had served a second term. Napolitano resigned in 2015, when he was nearly 90, clearing the way for the election that made Mattarella head of state. In that round, Mattarella garnered 387 votes, 51 more than he received in Friday evening's vote, where momentum for a second mandate started gaining traction.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been pulled away from his impending retirement and reelected to a second seven-year term as the country’s head of state, ending days of political impasse as party leaders struggled to pick his successor.

Italy Presidential Elections President of the Italian Senate, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, left, and President of the Italian Lower Chamber Roberto Fico count ballots in the Italian parliament in Rome, during a voting session in the Italian parliament, in Rome, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. The first rounds of voting in Italy's Parliament for the country's next president yielded an avalanche of blank ballots, as lawmakers and special regional electors failed to deliver a winner amid a political stalemate. At the start of the fifth day of voting, right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini declared that the center-right bloc would vote for the Senate president, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati. A sixth round of balloting, held on Friday evening, also yielded no winner, with leaders from the center-right bloc indicating their electors were sitting out that round while behind-the-scenes negotiations continued. The president, however, helps to authoritatively mediate Italy’s frequent political squabbling in its coalition governments and can dissolve Parliament if it becomes hopelessly stalemated.

Insistence by Italy's center-right bloc that their candidate becomes the nation's president has backfired.

Leaders across Italy's political spectrum have been struggling to nail down an agreement on who should be the country's next president.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi has bowed out of Italy’s presidential election set for next week.

Italy is poised to elect a new president, a figure who is supposed to serve as the nation’s moral compass and foster unity by being above the political fray.

APTOPIX Migration Italy Migrants walk on the quay after disembarking in Roccella Jonica, Calabria region, southern Italy, early Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021. The Italian Coast Guard rescued over three hundred young men and boys, mostly from Egypt, in heavy storms as their fishing boat floundered off the coast of Calabria Saturday night. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (Alessandra Tarantino)ROCCELLA JONICA, Italy — (AP) — The Italian Coast Guard has rescued more than 300 young men and boys, most of them from Egypt, from a storm-battered fishing boat in rough seas off the southern “toe” of Italy’s mainland. The rescue began Saturday night and ended early Sunday when the 303 migrants, soaked and shivering, stepped on to the port of Roccella Jonica in the the Calabria region. In Roccella Jonica, Red Cross volunteers early Sunday handed the migrants plastic clogs, blankets, food and protective face masks as part of COVID-19 precautions.

The Italian Coast Guard has rescued more than 550 migrants, many of them young men and boys from Egypt, from traffickers boats in storm-tossed waters off the southern “toe” of Italy's mainland.

Matteo Salvini goes on trial for allegedly illegally blocking over 100 migrants in dire sanitary conditions from disembarking from a rescue ship.

Italy Migrants Salvini Trial Former minister of interior Matteo Salvini, center, leaves the Palermo's court, Italy, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. Italy's former right-wing interior minister, Matteo Salvini, went on trial Saturday charged with kidnapping for refusing 2019 to allow a Spanish migrant rescue ship to dock in Sicily, keeping the people onboard at sea for days. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (Gregorio Borgia)PALERMO, Italy — (AP) — Italy’s right-wing former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, went on trial Saturday charged with kidnapping for refusing in 2019 to allow a Spanish migrant rescue ship to dock in Sicily, keeping the people onboard at sea for days. Salvini was present for the opening day of the trial in Palermo, Sicily, which included procedural requests like witness lists. Prosecutors accuse Salvini of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for refusing to allow the ship into port for days in August 2019.

Italy Migrants Salvini Trial Demonstrators show a placard reading "Mr. Salvini is this how you save innocent lives?" as they stage a protest outside Palermo's court where the trial of Former minister of interior Matteo Salvini has started in Palermo, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. Salvini was present for the opening day of the trial in Palermo, Sicily, which was expected to deal mostly with procedural requests. Salvini took a hard line on migrant arrivals, blocking ships and pushing for Europe to take some of the burden off Italy. Prosecutors accuse Salvini of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for refusing to allow the ship into port for days in August 2019.

U.S. actor Richard Gere is officially on the witness list to testify at the trial against Italy’s right-wing former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Italy Mayoral Elections Center-left mayoral candidate Roberto Gualtieri flashes a v-sign at his party's headquarters in Rome, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (Gregorio Borgia)ROME — (AP) — Italy’s center-left forces won big in Rome, Turin and several other mayoral runoffs on Monday, dealing embarrassing defeats to the anti-migrant and far-right parties that are hoping to capture Italy's premiership in the next national election. “When the mayor of Rome is elected by 24% of those eligible to vote ... there is a crisis of democracy,” Meloni said. But she contended that it was the populist 5-Stars who had suffered the real “debacle," which recalibrated Italy's national politics to a question of center-right vs. center-left. Salvini's northern-based right-wing party suffered some stinging setbacks in the mayoral races, including a resounding first-round defeat for his candidate for Milan, Italy's financial capital, which reelected its center-left mayor.

Italy's center-left forces have won big in Rome and most other significant mayoral races, dealing a heavy blow to right-wing parties that have been hoping to capture the premiership in the next national election.

Italy Mayoral Elections Scrutineers count ballots after the closing of a polling station, in Rome, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. The 5-Stars, currently Parliament's largest party, also failed to clinch a mayoral runoff slot in Turin, where one of their own had been mayor since 2016, with nearly 40% of the ballots counted. Salvini has ambitions to win the premiership of a center-right government he hopes will be formed after Italy's parliamentary election. But with wins in Milan, Naples and Bologna and spots in mayoral runoffs in Rome and Turin, “we showed that the center-right is beatable,” Letta told supporters. Key to winning the Rome mayoral runoff will be wooing support from Raggi's disappointed backers.

Italy's center-left forces, led by Democrats, are triumphing or clinching runoff slots in Milan and other big city mayoral elections, according to partial vote counts after two days of balloting.

Millions of people are voting in Italy for new mayors including in the nation's main cities.

The man, who apparently didn't have a bus ticket, slashed the controllers who had asked to see his ticket, leaving the two women wounded, news reports said. As police gave chase, the man allegedly slashed three more persons along his path. The boy was in critical condition on Sunday after surgery for his wounds, including on his neck. Police arrested the man after catching up with him on a side street flanking a hotel. State TV said the man had applied for asylum in Italy and was living in a migrant residence run by a Catholic charity in Rimini.

Salvini has been demanding that Lamorgese crack down more heavily on illegal migration. The man, who apparently didn't have a bus ticket, slashed the controllers who had asked to see his ticket, leaving the two women wounded, news reports said. As police gave chase, the man allegedly slashed three more persons along his path. The boy was in critical condition on Sunday after surgery for his wounds, including on his neck. State TV said the man had applied for asylum in Italy and was living in a migrant residence run by a Catholic charity in Rimini.

A German charity boat carrying 257 rescued migrants has docked in Sicily after Italian authorities granted permission.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State has attempted to tamp down controversy over a Vatican diplomatic communication to Italy.

Abandoned by her father and bullied by other children for being chubby, life was not too rosy for Giorgia Meloni when she was growing up in a scruffy working-class district of Rome. Thirty years on, she is having the last laugh. The leader of the hard-Right Brothers of Italy party could, conceivably, become Italy’s first ever woman prime minister, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Brothers of Italy, which is the modern-day heir to Italy’s fascist movement, was then a fringe

Italy’s government is under huge pressure to staunch the arrivals of migrants from the coast of North Africa as the country recorded a nine-fold increase in the number of asylum seekers reaching its shores since 2019. Latest figures show the migration landscape shifting with many more attempts to reach Spain and Italy than Greece, which has adopted hardline policies. On Friday, Greece’s migration minister said the government had adopted the measures so “we don’t send the wrong message of incenti

Giovanni Brusca was a key figure within the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia group.

A judge in Sicily on Saturday, April 17, 2021, ordered former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial for having refused to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people at sea for days. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file) (Andrew Medichini)MILAN — (AP) — A judge in Sicily has dismissed a case against right-wing leader Matteo Salvini for keeping rescued migrants on board a coast guard ship in 2019, saying no crime had been committed. Prosecutors had earlier recommended against ordering a trial, saying Salvini was carrying out government policy. While the Catania case was dismissed, the leader of the right-wing League will face trial in the Sicilian capital of Palermo on kidnapping charges for failure to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in 2019. The rescue ship, Open Arms, was kept at sea for days with 147 people saved in the central Mediterranean Sea.

A judge in Sicily has dismissed a case against right-wing leader Matteo Salvini for keeping rescued migrants on board a coast guard ship during the summer of 2019, saying no crime had been committed.

The situation on the tiny Mediterranean island of Lampedusa is “explosive” after more than 2,000 migrants landed in just 24 hours, as smugglers switch away from rubber dinghies in favour of steel-hulled fishing boats that can carry hundreds of asylum seekers. It was the largest number of migrants to arrive on Italian shores in a single day so far this year. The surge was seized on by Matteo Salvini, the head of the nationalist League party, who criticised the ruling coalition despite being a part of it. He demanded an emergency meeting with Mario Draghi, Italy’s prime minister, to discuss ways to deter migrant boats from arriving. He said Italians, exhausted by the pandemic, successive lockdowns and a drop in GDP of around nine per cent in the last year, were in no mood to be welcoming. “With millions of Italians in economic difficulty, we cannot look after thousands of clandestine migrants, with 12,000 already having arrived so far this year,” Mr Salvini said. Giorgia Meloni, the head of the hard-Right Brothers of Italy party, which is fast catching up with the League in popularity, called for Italy to organise a “naval blockade” to prevent smugglers’ boats reaching land. “The situation on Lampedusa is literally explosive,” said Domenico Pianese, the secretary-general of a police union.

ROME — (AP) — Several hundred more migrants reached a tiny Italian island before dawn on Monday, swelling to past 2,100 the number of arrivals in some 24 hours. Italian state radio said four boats arrived at Lampedusa island after being escorted the last miles to port early Monday by Italian coast guard or custom police vessels. The radio said many people slept on mattresses outdoors after Lampedusa’s migrant housing center, which had been empty until Sunday, had filled up. On Sunday, the island's mayor appealed to the Italian government to deal with the sea migrant issue, and national political leaders chimed in, too. In recent years there have been similar surges in springtime in the number of migrant arrivals.

Several hundred more migrants have reached a tiny Italian island, swelling to past 2,100 the number of arrivals in 24 hours.

Several hundred more migrants reached a tiny Italian island before dawn on Monday, swelling to past 2,100 the number of arrivals in around 24 hours and fueling calls from across the political spectrum for the Italian government to strengthen its migration policies. Italian state radio said four boats arrived at Lampedusa island after being escorted the last miles to port early Monday by Italian coast guard or custom police vessels. The 635 latest arrivals followed more than 1,400 who arrived on Sunday.

The first of the migrants arrived at 5 a.m., Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello told Sky TG24 TV at 5 p.m. It was the biggest number of migrants to come ashore this year in a single day at an Italian port this year. By late afternoon, at least nine boats full of migrants disembarked on the island, which has an initial processing center for migrants coming ashore and requesting asylum. Italian news reports said Italian coast guard and customs police boats escorted the vessels to Lampedusa after they were spotted in the Mediterranean a few miles offshore. In recent years, a few thousand migrants rescued at sea arrived in one day.

More than 1,200 migrants in several decrepit, overcrowded fishing boats on Sunday reached a tiny Italian island in a span of 12 hours, as human traffickers exploited calm seas and warm weather to launch multiple vessels, the mayor said. The first of the migrants arrived at 5 a.m., Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello told Sky TG24 TV at 5 p.m. It was the biggest number of migrants to come ashore this year in a single day at an Italian port this year. Italian news reports said Italian coast guard and customs police boats escorted the vessels to Lampedusa after they were spotted in the Mediterranean a few miles offshore.

He's known throughout most of Europe as Mr. Brexit, but not so well known at home in France.

Italian rapper Fedez has received a wave of public support after going public with attempts by RAI state television to censor his planned remarks calling attention to homophobia during a Workers' Day concert.

A judge in Sicily has ordered former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial on kidnapping charges for having refused to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port.

An Italian prosecutor says there's no reason to put right-wing leader Matteo Salvini on trial for kidnapping migrants whom he wouldn't let disembark from a coast guard vessel.

Turkey is demanding an apology from Italy’s premier after he called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator.”.

The trilateral meeting brought Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Italy's former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, to Hungary's capital of Budapest. The event came two weeks after Orban’s ruling Fidesz party finalized a break with its center-right European political family, the European People’s Party (EPP). As Italy's interior minister, Salvini worked to ease EU sanctions on Russia. But Poland's ruling party shares Fidesz's disaffection with the EU, with both parties arguing Brussels has infringed on their sovereign decisions. AdOn Thursday, Morawiecki echoed Orban's calls for a European political force that “respects national sovereignty and freedom" and defends traditional values.

The Council of State ruled that the Culture Ministry was correct in cancelling the concession it had given to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, or Human Dignity Institute. The ruling overturned an earlier decision by a regional administrative tribunal that had sided with the institute. AdBannon had said he would bring in teachers and raise money for the academy, which had been dubbed a “gladiator school" for the alt-right. AdBannon said Tuesday the court decision was a politically motivated “joke" that was befitting of a developing country. Prosecutors in New York say the money instead went to pay a campaign official’s salary and personal expenses.

FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 file photo, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels. But thats hardly likely to be Contes last hurrah in politics. But that’s hardly likely to be Conte’s last hurrah in Italian politics. But a return to the ballot box could come sooner, given Italy's fluctuating political dynamics. ”What's important is to have a political trajectory, cultivate a political path to offer to the voters and to the country."

Italian President Sergio Mattarella had tasked the former European Central Bank president with trying to form a government up to managing the the health, economic and social crises of the coronavirus pandemic. AdDraghi’s most-quoted words so far have been those uttered in 2012 when the euro-zone risked collapsing in a crisis of confidence and he vowed the European Central Bank would do “whatever it takes” to rescue the euro. The current head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, tweeted her congratulations. Italy's health minister through the pandemic, Roberto Speranza, kept his post, the sole minister from a small left-wing party. ___This story has been corrected to show that employees applauded for Conte, not Draghi.