Last month the northern Italian town of Lodi moved to deny the children of non-European citizens the free school meals and school buses provided for “locals.” Mayor Sara Casanova, representing the hard-right Lega, had issued the “reform” last summer, but it only came into effect with the beginning of the 2018–19 school year. Foreign parents are required to meet near-impossible thresholds to prove they do not have income abroad. According to the Corriere della Sera some 318 families are affected; most of the children concerned were born in Italy, but this is no guarantee of citizenship, and it is the parents’ nationality that counts. Lega leader Matteo Salvini welcomed the move, falsely suggesting that many of these families had “two, three, or four houses in their own country” and thus ought to pay themselves. Alongside protests by those most directly concerned, €60,000 has been crowdfunded to support the children.

If it might seem odd for Salvini (who is both Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister) to intervene in local politics, this is nothing compared to his ongoing campaign against the mayor of a village on Italy’s Southern toe. Since 2004, isolated Riace (population 2,300), led by Domenico Lucano, has played host to thousands of migrants, becoming a “model” of integration based on jobs and training while also revitalizing an abandoned village.

But after Salvini’s months-long war of words with Lucano, on October 2 the mayor was placed under house arrest, under accusation of “aiding and abetting illegal immigration.” Matteo Salvini publicly welcomed the arrest by saying it “would serve as an example for others” while also vowing to dismantle the Riace model.