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Beppe Grillo. Photograph: Angelo Carconi/EPA

Amri’s killing is an international story, but it is also comes at a critical time in Italy’s domestic politics.

Paolo Gentiloni has been prime minister for nine days and had been consumed by a bank bailout of Monte dei Paschi di Siena just an hour before the shooting.

It did not take long for the issue to become a source of political controversy.

Beppe Grillo, the head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, joined Marine Le Pen, of France, Geert Wilders, of the Netherlands, and Nigel Farage, of Ukip, in using the incident to criticise Europe’s open border policy under Schengen, which he said needed to be “reviewed”. He said:

It’s crazy that two ordinary officers should be put at risk and finding themselves having to deal with a terrorist wanted by half of Europe.

The problem was the the result of a migrant crisis that was “out of control”, said Grillo.

The Five Star Movement has described itself as post-ideological, and neither left nor right in its political leanings. But Grillo’s response and evocation of the migrant crisis was in line with other rightwing leaders in Europe.