Everyone has a limit. This was Mayor Virginia Raggi's limit apparently.
Rome's mayor, Virginia Raggi, on Tuesday asked the interior ministry for migrant arrivals to the capital to be suspended.
"I find it impossible, as well as risky, to think up further accommodation structures," said Raggi in a letter sent to Paola Basilone, the prefect of Rome, in which she called for a "moratorium" on further new arrivals.
The mayor cited as reasons for the request the "strong migratory presence" in the capital and "the continued influx of foreign citizens".
Now this is significant because Raggi is a product of the leftist Five Star Movement and had campaigned insisting that Rome has a legal obligation to house migrants. Raggi's platform was fairly leftist. And now the first female mayor of Rome has decided that enough is enough. And she suddenly sounds like a UKIP member or... Trump.
In the most significant challenge yet to the centre-left Italian government's policy of distributing across the country the thousands of migrants arriving at southern ports, Virginia Raggi said it was "time to listen to the citizens of Rome."
"We cannot permit the creation of more social tensions," Raggi, a member of the populist Five Star Movement, wrote on her Facebook page.
"That is why I am saying it is impossible, risky even, to think about creating any new reception structures."
Beppe Grillo, Five Star's comedian/leader, is far more pro-Islamic and is ranting about the gypsies. But they're both realizing that if you want to be a populist, you either need a large foreign demographic or you have to address migration.
All this is quite a shift from Raggi'a old cliched rhetoric about compassion.
"Our cities seem to be closed off with their self-interest and the mayors are the ones who should give the first reception.
“We must guarantee human warmth, shelter, accommodation.
“The attitude that we have seen, unfortunately, offends our dignity as mayors and people.
“For this we must take action, even more in the suburbs, which are the most abandoned parts of the city, where there is a risk of a war between the poor.”
She explained how a Moroccan family were chased away from a flat given to them by the local council as locals hurled racist obscenities towards them.
Earlier this month, Rome welcomed 8,074 refugees into the city, sparking protest marches.
Now there's a whole new tune.