With just hours to go before Sunday’s poll opens, candidates are making a final push for votes, with Mr Salvini – leader of the right-wing Lega party and an ally of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – closely echoing the US President’s campaign rhetoric during a speech in the northern town of Padua.
He declared: “Guys, we have imported a few good people.
“But there has also been a tide of delinquents and I want to send them home, from the first to the last.
“We are packed with drug dealers, rapists, burglars — and the Lega (party) is the solution.”
Loughborough University’s Professor Nicola Chelotti said while it was difficult to put an accurate figure on the number of illegal immigrants living in Italy, the 500,000 figure was “roughly accurate”, with another 5.4 million overseas nationals living there legally, plus 200,000 more who are classified as asylum seekers.
Deporting asylum seekers would be difficult for Mr Salvini, given Italy would need to tear up treaties with the EU in order to do so, said Mr Chelotti.
However, he suggested Mr Salvini might have more success when it came to the people living in the country illegally.
He said: “Italy has experienced in the last few years quite a dramatic increase of economic (or illegal) immigrants, especially from the sub-Saharan continent.
“We will likely see more repatriations but certainly not very unlikely that this will cover the entire group of 500,000 illegal immigrants.”
Nonetheless, Mr Chelotti could see parallels between Mr Salvini, who yesterday won the support of the President’s former strategist Steve Bannon, and Mr Trump himself.
He said: “There are similarities (tough stance on migration, protectionism, support for Italian products, etc) but also differences.
“The big one is that Trump got 47 per cent of the American votes, while Salvini will probably get something around 15 per cent. Salvini will probably not be Italy’s prime minister.
“Also, Salvini will have to mediate with more moderate coalition partners (Berlusconi) and will have be more constrained by Italian and European norms with regard to migration.”