COMO, Italy — The center-right candidate for mayor of Como, Mario Landriscina, a doctor who once did United Nations relief work, says that Italy is second to none in rescuing migrants and that rejecting refugees or minors is out of the question.

But, he insists, the time has come to remove the migrants who blight his handsome and orderly town, where they sleep in abandoned garages or loiter on the esplanade around Lake Como, better known as a luxury destination for George Clooney than as a magnet for despair.

“See there?” he asked, pointing to an African man sitting alone on a piazza’s steps the other day as Mr. Landriscina strolled toward the cathedral for a mayoral endorsement by some of Italy’s leading right-wing politicians. “That’s the first guy. It’s only the beginning.”

Italians vote on Sunday in the final round of municipal elections seen as a bellwether before national elections, and immigration is the issue that may determine races from this northern city on the Swiss border to the southern coast of Sicily.