On July 4th 2018 Prof. Sottilotta听 was interviewed by Al Jazeera English on the tensions emerging within Italy's coalition government due to disagreement on how to manage the flow of asylum seekers trying to reach Italy's shores by boat via the central Mediterranean route. While anti-immigration minister of interiors Salvini is successfully monopolizing the attention of the public acting as a de facto prime minister, the Five Star Movement appears to be divided:听 its leader Di Maio is officially supporting Salvini's hard line, but other leading figures within the Five Star Movement, especially听 Roberto Fico听(speaker of the Chamber of Deputies) are expressing opposite views and praising the work of NGOs which are rescuing asylum seekers听 in the Mediterranean.
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