Italian left-wing MEP Mimmo Lucano, widely known as the “pro-migrant mayor” for his refugee reception policies, has been removed from his role as Mayor of Riace.
That csme after a conviction for having implemented irregular administrative practices to help migrants without legal entitlement remain in Italy.
His disqualification from office was confirmed yesterday when an Italian court endorsed a national law that bars individuals with certain criminal convictions from holding local public posts. The ruling does not affect his position as an MEP, which he will retain.
Lucano, a former teacher, rose to international prominence during his years as Mayor of Riace, a small town in Calabria with with 2,000 inhabitants. There he developed a system of migrant settlement as a way to revive a territory deeply affected by depopulation and declining birth rates.
Starting in the late 1990s and expanding during his tenure from 2004, he welcomed hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers into the nearly abandoned village. The so-called “Riace model” became a symbol for parts of the Italian and European Left, presenting migration as an opportunity to regenerate struggling communities.
It also drew strong criticism from parts of the Right, which accused him of encouraging irregular immigration and promoting the so-called “ethnic replacement” narrative.
His political trajectory, though, has been closely intertwined with legal challenges. Beginning in 2017, prosecutors launched an investigation into the management of migration programmes in Riace, accusing him of aiding illegal immigration, fraud and abuse of office.
According to investigators, the conviction for falsifying official documents concerned municipal administrative acts and paperwork linked to migrant reception projects and related services.
In 2021, a first-instance court sentenced him to more than 13 years in prison, a ruling that sparked national and international controversy.
That decision was largely overturned on appeal in 2023, when most charges were dismissed or declared time-barred. Lucano was ultimately convicted only of a single count of falsifying official documents, receiving an 18-month suspended sentence, meaning he did not serve time in prison.
In 2024, he was elected to the European Parliament as a member of thhe Greens and Left Alliance group (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, AVS) sitting with the Greens/European Free Alliance groups.
His election in Italy was described by some media outlets as part of a broader “trio” of radical left-wing anti-fascist figures elected to the EP alongside Ilaria Salis and Carola Rackete.
Salis, an Italian far-left activist, became widely known after being detained in Hungary on charges linked to an alleged violent assault on far-right individuals.
Rackete, a German sea-rescue captain and activist, gained international attention in 2019 for challenging the blockade of illegal migration across the Mediterranean imposed by the then-government and later entered politics with the German Left.
Once Lucano’s conviction became definitive in 2025, though, Italian authorities applied the law, which led to his removal from the mayoralty the following year.
