Economic hardships, poverty and unemployment have been growing in Italy and some blame migrants for the situation.
The Mediterranean nation is a popular landing point for migrant boats making the journey from northern Africa to Europe.
The leader of right-wing Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has accused the centre left of “turning the country into a refugee camp” and has pledged to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins the election.
He repeated the words ‘Italians first’ in a TV interview where he pledged to deport hundreds of thousand of illegal migrants.
He said: “In this moment of crisis and unemployment, the more migrants that come in, the more confusion”.
The former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants, describing them as a “social bomb that risks exploding” if his centre-right coalition wins power in next month’s elections.
This comes as a far-right supporter who allegedly tried to kill six African migrants in drive-by shootings on Saturday February 3 has been charged.
The former nightclub bouncer, Luca Traini, 28 allegedly covered himself in an Italian flag after the shooting spree and shouted “Long live Italy”.
Mr Traini had run unsuccessfully with the anti-migrant Northern League party in a local election last year.
The Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni condemned the shooting saying “hatred and violence will not succeed in dividing us”.
The shootings happened after a Nigerian man was arrested in connection with the death of an 18-year-old woman, Pamela Mastropietro.
However, a judge has dropped the murder charge due to a lack of evidence,
Far-right groups have jumped on the death to promote their anti-migrant message.
President Sergio Mattarella has called for unity warning a “lack of sense of community leads to distrust, intolerance and sometimes violence”.
If the centre-right bloc gets a majority in the elections, either the Forza Italia of the Northern League will choose the country’s next prime minister depending on which of the two parties get more votes.
Italians will vote in the election on March 4.