The grassroots Five-Star Movement will push for an emergency mechanism to redistribute migrants within the European Union when the new EU executive takes office in November, the party's leader, Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.
"The Five-Star Movement played a decisive role in the election of the new European Commission president (Ursula von der Leyen)," said Di Maio, who is also Italy's deputy premier.
"As soon as the new European Commission takes office, we will ask on Italy's behalf for an emergency procedure to relocate migrants to other European countries," Di Maio said.
"This must be Italy's goal on immigration. We have been abandoned in these past few years and have had to manage on our own. It's time for Europe to manage the issue."
Italy will press for a "full revision" of the Dublin Regulation requiring migrants to claim asylum in the EU country they first reach and "the complete abrogation of the insane European principle that requires arrival states to shelter the migrants," Di Maio stated.
Although migrant arrivals to Italy have declined sharply over the past year, more than 750,000 people have arrived across the Mediterranean since 2014 and illegal immigration is a politically charged electoral issue.
Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the far-right League, has doubled support its support since taking office in June last year. The League is now by far the most popular party in opinion polls - mainly on the back of Salvini's tough stance on migration.
