Italian Right-wing politician Roberto Vannacci, leader of Futuro Nazionale, has criticised Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s handling of immigration, stating that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez “is right” while describing Meloni’s record as “a fiasco.”
Speaking to Italian outlet Il Foglio on August 4, Vannacci said Italy is “doing very badly” on migration.
He pointed to the government’s decreto flussi (flows decree), under which people enter via a “click day” system and are then not adequately monitored, and noted that returns are performing worse than under the previous Renzi and Conte governments.
“Someone promised a naval blockade,” he added.
The ex-military said that Italy is being “Governed by a watered-down, fearful right, without the courage to make decisive decisions”.
Vannacci welcomed Sánchez’s decision to return around 60,000 irregular migrants after the recent Ceuta crossings, observing that the left was now endorsing “remigration” after decades of rhetoric opposing it.
At the same time he criticised Spain’s earlier regularisation of more than 500,000 undocumented people, arguing that this had acted as a pull factor that triggered the Ceuta surge.
He called for a tripling of detention centres (CPR), physical barriers and measures modelled on Norway that remove incentives for irregular entry.
He also highlighted successes from Australia’s past.
“The only measure that will allow us to minimise illegal entries is the Australian model: Whether you are elderly, women, children or disabled, as an irregular you will never be regularised. A paradigm shift is urgently needed”
Vannacci, a former army general who left the League party to found his own party, has positioned himself to Meloni’s right on migration, advocating “remigration” and a strict limit on the foreign population.
The remarks come amid heightened European debate over border control following the Ceuta events and Italy’s temporary suspension of Schengen rules with Spain.
Meloni’s government has defended its record of reduced sea arrivals and increased returns while pursuing external processing arrangements such as the Albania protocol.
The Italian government has announced a sharp decline in irregular sea arrivals, with new official figures showing a 77 per cent reduction compared to 2023 and a 52 per cent drop compared to 2025 for the same period this year.https://t.co/IzMbv2zO6q
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 12, 2026
While irregular sea arrivals to Italy have fallen sharply under the Meloni government (from around 158,000 in 2023 to roughly 66,000–67,000 in both 2024 and 2025), legal migration channels have been expanded.
The main instrument is the decreto flussi, which sets annual quotas for non-EU workers.
For 2023–2025 the government authorised approximately 452,000 entries (136,000 in 2023, 151,000 in 2024 and 165,000 in 2025).
For 2026–2028 the quotas rise further to a total of 497,550 (164,850 in 2026, 165,850 in 2027 and 166,850 in 2028), split between seasonal agricultural/tourism work and non-seasonal employment.
In practice, far fewer workers complete the full process.
Monitoring by the “Ero Straniero” campaign shows that only about 16.9 per cent of the 2024 quota and roughly 7.9 per cent of the 2025 quota had resulted in residence permits and signed contracts by late 2025.
Administrative bottlenecks, the “click-day” system and long processing times mean many authorised places remain unused.
Broader Istat figures for 2025 record total foreign arrivals (all legal channels combined) at approximately 383,000, a modest decline from 393,000 in 2024.
A political debate over revoking citizenship from foreign-born criminals and terrorists has gained traction in Italy in the wake of the Modena attack, with the League already tabling a bill to that effect in the Italian parliament.https://t.co/k30h8TNOJn
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 26, 2026
