on 15 january 2018, fontana stated that the white race and the western culture were in danger due to the migration flows from africa. this created lot of protests and criticisms from the centre-left democratic party (pd) and the anti-establishment five star movement (m5s). after the controversy he apologised for his remarks, declaring that it was a slip and an expressive error, not racism. fontana's principal rivals were giorgio gori (pd) and dario violi (m5s). on 4 march 2018 fontana won 50% (gori 29%, violi 17%) in the regional election.