Five years ago a 47-year-old man from Senegal hijacked a school bus full of children just outside Milan, the business capital of Italy. He ordered the teachers and a janitor to restrain all the children with zip ties. His motive was clear: The man threatened to carry out a “massacre” to avenge all of the illegal migrants who drowned on their way to Europe. Essentially, he wanted open borders, and he was threatening to commit mass murder to get it. And he seemed intent on making good on that promise: During a 40-minute rampage, the man rammed the school bus into several cars on a highway before lighting the bus on fire. At that point, the 51 children on board managed to escape, thanks in part to the adults who didn’t actually secure the zip ties on any of the students.
This 2019 school bus hijacking changed the trajectory of Italy’s politics overnight, and you can see why. People will buy into a lot of very bad policies in the name of tolerance and acceptance and so on. But when a guy from Senegal hijacks a school bus full of children and tries to light them on fire, it’s pretty clear that a red line has been crossed. That’s an unmistakable sign that things need to change. And voters in Italy responded accordingly. It’s one of the reasons Meloni was elected prime minister in 2022, on a platform calling for a naval blockade to keep illegal migrants out of the country.
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