Italian politics has taken a sharp turn to the right. The post-electoral populist alliance of the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and the post-ideological 5 Star Movement, led by Luigi Di Maio rode a wave of populism. But this populism has echoes on the left, portending similar moves around the globe. Italian politics are global politics.

The government is headed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a professor of private law with no political experience. He  is effectively under the tutelage of Salvini and Di Maio, his deputy prime ministers. Salvini is the new home affairs minister (overseeing all immigration matters), and Di Maio is in charge of the ministry of economic development, and the ministry of labor and welfare. The coalition partners are committed to stopping new arrivals of immigrants and refugees, deporting undocumented migrants in large numbers, and prioritizing Italian citizens in social and economic policy.

On 9 June, the Aquarius ship, carrying 629 refugees rescued in the Mediterranean, was refused the right to dock in Italy. This is part of a wholesale attack launched by Salvini on humanitarian rescue ships operated by NGOs. Since then, other NGO ships have been refused entry. In a shocking move – and in clear violation of international and national laws – the Italian coast guard is now unwilling to intervene when called for help to rescue immigrants and refugees at risk of drowning in Libyan waters.

At the end of June, when one such call was refused, around 1,000 people were rescued by the Libyan coast guard and brought back to Libya, a country with documented evidence of widespread human rights abuses against migrants and refugees, including torture, rape, slavery and other forms of forced labor.

Evoking specters of Nazi-style policies, Salvini announced a census of Roma people, with the aim of deporting those who are not Italian citizens. He also added that “unfortunately, we will have to keep Italian Roma, because they can’t be deported.” He backtracked afterwards, but continued to fuel anti-Roma hate on his social media. These moves are part of ongoing negotiations with other EU states to further tighten European borders and stop migration flows to Italy, and deepen Italy’s already tougher stand on immigration that previous home affairs minister, the center-left Democrat Marco Minniti, developed.

News reports suggest a dramatic increase in racist and xenophobic violence in 2018 alone – especially against African immigrants and black Italians – with at least two hate murders with a clear racial motive, an attempted mass murder of African migrants, and several reports of violent attacks on migrants and refugees.

Idy Diene, a 54-year-old Senegalese street vendor, was murdered in Florence on the morning after election day in March, when the results confirmed the overwhelming victory of the populist forces. In another case, Soumaila Sacko, a Malian trade unionist with regular residence permit, was executed in San Calogero, a small southern Italian town, a few hours after Matteo Salvini emphatically stated at a political rally that “for undocumented migrants, the party is over”. Recently, three Italian youth in the southern city of Caserta attacked and injured two Malian asylum seekers, using an air gun to shoot at them, while shouting “Salvini Salvini”.

These attacks build on longer term trends. If you were born and brought up in Italy, but have parents who are not Italian, especially if you are darker skinned, then you are not Italian. As Ghali, popular Milan rapper of Tunisian origins, sings in Cara Italia (“Dear Italy”): “When they tell me ‘go home’, I reply ‘I am already here.’”

Discriminatory laws do not recognize birthright citizenship: if you were born in Italy and lived there for several years, you have no automatic rights to citizenship – you are an Italian without papers. The word immigrati (“immigrants”) is used to refer to all Italians of color, as well as migrants and refugees. In a recent interview, Nigerian-born Toni Iwobi, the first Italian black senator, makes a similar point – ironically, he was elected in the League ranks and is a strong supporter of Salvini’s anti-immigrant policies. Iwobi said that his parliamentary colleagues listen to him across the political spectrum because he can speak from the standpoint of a immigrant. When challenged by the interviewer that he was no longer a migrant, he replied: “I am and will always be a immigrant, but Italian.”

This hostile atmosphere is not confined to black Italians and migrants and refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It affects Roma people, especially after Salvini’s propaganda. Italians are the most prejudiced European population when it comes to attitudes towards Roma communities. Muslims have long been targeted by rampant Islamophobia – thinly disguised in new measures announced by the government to counter “terrorism”. Migrants from Eastern Europe are also discriminated and treated with hostility.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise, fueled by the quick spread on social media of conspiracies about Jewish financier George Soros, accused of all sorts of “plots” to bring down Italy and Europe. In early June, in the central square of San Maurizio Canavese, a small town outside Turin, attackers burned a car and vandalized a hairdresser shop front with red paint. They left a message that read “this is a Jewish shop.”

If we add to this that Salvini and other far right politicians have often evoked Italy’s “Christian” values and the importance of protecting “traditional families” from the threat posed by LGBTQ and feminist movements, there is a real danger of a descent into a reactionary spiral opposed to all forms of diversity.