The new Italian government does not have much space, neither financially nor in terms of foreign policy. Immigrants come in handy to show toughness in front of their constituents. That’s all there is to it – a political spectacle.

One must understand the government of Georgia Meloni. She is in trouble. The right-wing coalition of the new Italian prime minister has virtually no political room to maneuver – except for the fight against immigrants. It is now managed by all means.

This is the starting point: Italians can get rid of all illusions about „going into debt freely” and fulfill campaign promises, including a minimum pension of 1,000 euros for everyone over the age of 60. Meloni knows that. But politically, this is dangerous for them, as it may upset their constituents. Because Italy is completely financially dependent on the EU: the country must gradually fulfill the agreements of the EU Reconstruction Fund, of which a total of 750 billion euros will be spent about 200 in Italy. Italy was given preference for distribution because the country suffered the most in the first year of the Covid19 pandemic, 2020. The distribution among the 27 EU countries would be a different matter today, nearly three years after the pandemic. In any case, the lion’s share goes to Italy.

In return, Italy must implement reforms aimed at making the country resilient in the face of crises and fit for the future, as stated in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The judiciary is such an important area that it does not take an average of four years before the final verdict is made in a civil trial in Italy. In addition, Italy must open its own markets to European competitors, abolish concessions and combat massive tax evasion. All measures that do not work with many voters in the legal alliance. Without reforms, however, no money will be taken out of Brussels, and the European Central Bank will not support the purchases. Rome should do the trick without long discussions.

The Meloni government is also in a constraint when it comes to foreign policy. It should not allow any doubts about its loyalty to NATO and about its support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, because they will eventually jeopardize the continuous flow of money through the Alps. So, Hare District Chief Georgia Meloni – That’s Not a Typo: Giorgia Meloni Wants It il Presidente del Consiglio To address the Prime Minister, although he is also Italian No President Presentation – Make „defending the frontier” an absolute priority. But who is threatening Italy’s borders?

The distribution has already worked well and without noise so far

Prime Minister Meloni knows he can only meet the political expectations of his constituents at home. For whom should Meloni be solid and stubborn? There is no better opponent than immigrants: they look different, speak different languages, are poor, have no connections and do not bring money with them. This is an important point, because wealthy foreigners of different skin colors and culture are of course welcome, as evidenced by the number of owners of foreign football clubs in Italy.

So the fight against immigrants. But against whom exactly? The truth is that 88,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in Italy this year, compared to 56 thousand in 2021. This is not really an „invasion”, even if the numbers are increasing. In fact, their access and distribution across other EU countries has been well organized and quiet thus far.

Let’s get into the details, because that’s where the devil is, as we all know: Nearly 90 percent of migrants have come to Italy on their own boats this year or have been rescued from distress at sea by Italian Coast Guard ships. Together, the NGOs have rescued about 9,000 people from ordeal at sea, most of them in international waters off Libya.

Previous Italian practice was to place NGO ships – there are currently four in the central Mediterranean – in a safe haven, a „Port of Safety” (POS), where rescued people were left ashore when the „state of emergency” became known. There they were identified and a decision was made as to whether they would be granted the right to stay or asylum, or whether they should be deported again.

Most of the refugees traveled to Germany

Italy has been carrying out deportations for many years with a rule you can call pragmatic: those who are to be deported get one. foglia di via, the deportation order, which states that they must leave Italy within a week by their own means. Of course, almost all immigrants travel by train, and most of them go to Germany. While about 800,000 refugees arrived on the coast of Italy during the years of the Syrian crisis, only one in four of them applied for asylum in Italy. To this day, the EU still tolerates it silently in order to keep Italy calm. The numbers were not large, and there was no other way to organize the European solidarity that Italy demanded.

Let’s get to NGOs. The disembarkation of refugees on the NGO ship always begins with the designation of a point of sale for the ship. This is how the international law of the sea, the Hamburg Convention, is regulated. The flag under which the ship is sailing is irrelevant. Which is only logical. If a Chinese-flagged ship transports people shipwrecked off Buenos Aires, no one will expect the shipping company to take them to China, but according to the agreement, they must be taken “to the nearest safe port.”

But that is exactly where the Meloni government comes in. German flag – the ship to Germany sank, so their logic. Norwegian flag – off to Norway. This does not comply with the Law of the Sea, but the issues of the UN Refugee Convention or the Law of the Sea or even the Dublin Rules are bohemian villages for most people. This is how advertising works.

Legal tricks instead of the bulldozer method

The government in Rome is playing with it. „He does it way smarter than Matteo Salvini,” says lawyer Vitalba Azuleni, the new Minister of the Interior, Matteo Bentidosi. While Salvini, head of the right-wing Lega party, played the role of “shovel digger” when he was Minister of the Interior, “The new Minister of the Interior was the fencer. He is trying to use legal sophistry to prevent refugees, immigrants, from landing.”

A change of tactic in „fighting immigrants” was necessary because Salvini simply refused entry to NGO ships. He made them wait outside until judges ordered them to confess under threat of imprisonment and fines. Salvini is also being tried in Sicily for this, where he is accused of deprivation of liberty.

So Salvini’s method was not really clever, it was very brutal, just like the bulldozer method. What is the new interior minister doing, in consultation with Salvini, who is now transport minister? Piantedose’s plan consists of three steps, as we see in the case of the NGO ships in the port of Catania.

First, NGO ships are allowed to enter the port. But they are not allowed to enter the port as a „point of sale assignment”, but the port authority simply allows them to dock. This intentionally ignores the fact that there are immigrants on board. Without POS instructions, NGO ships will be treated like any other ship in port. Therefore, the captain does not have the right to hand over the migrants to the Red Cross waiting at the pier. Because the migrants on the ship were not declared the reason for entering the ship. „A real legal sophistry,” Azuleni says.

Then the choice follows

Step two: the authorities step in and look for those they consider „in need of help”, usually minors and women. This is what it means in Italian Determinethe choice. Not a nice word, not a nice concept. But it gets worse in the third part of the Piantedosi plan, which was communicated and implemented in exactly the same way: after the selection on the ship, the Minister of the Interior gave the captain of „Humanity 1″, who was there and still are 35 male refugees, the order against which they were ordered ” to leave the port with the remaining cargo to international waters. In Italian: Con Carriko remainingwith the remaining charge. This means that 35 people, of the refugees whose status has not been verified, have not been allowed to see a lawyer. What should the captain do with these people now? launch on a buoy?

But in Italy there is an „inhumane” resistance and a „reminder of the worst times of choice”, according to many critics.

Legally speaking, it is a classic case of „refoulement”, refusal without any individual examination, which was already condemned by Italy in 2012 by the European Court of Human Rights. But this is the new practice in Italy: to fight immigrants as a measure of identity, in the absence of another leeway. You are fighting Germany through the gang, not directly.

There will be a more direct way to regulate immigration, to reduce the number. We know where immigrants come from. Of the 88,000 immigrants this year, 46,000 came from Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh. Countries with which Italy enjoys good diplomatic relations. Why doesn’t the Meloni government try to reach an agreement with these countries?

The agreement certainly attracts far less media attention than a battalion of fully-equipped police officers stationed in the port of Catania, who with military gestures prevent a few dozen poor refugees from going ashore.

(This article was first published on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.)