(Local) In a further sign of divisions within Italy’s populist coalition government, politicians from the far-right League blasted Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi for comparing the mass migration of Italians in the past to the foreigners landing on the country’s shores today.
In a message marking the anniversary of the 1956 Bois du Cazier mine disaster on Wednesday, Milanesi reminded people that Italy was once “a nation of emigration.”
The colliery fire in Marcinelle, Belgium, killed 262 people, including 136 Italian migrant workers.
“We have been a nation of emigration, we went out into the world looking for work as foreigners,” Milanesi said, adding that it was necessary to remember this “when we see the migrants of our troubled age arriving in Europe.”
