«Act immediately, illegal immigrants must be given a stop. Walls can be useful, but we have the problem of coasts»- Corriere.it

Luca Ciriani, Minister for Relations with Parliament of FdI, on the immigration decree there is a head-on clash in Parliament and on the territory, above all for the emptying of special protection. But was it really worth it?

“Yes. Special protection is only one aspect of the decree, which remained in the background after Cutro because the signal we wanted to give immediately was that smugglers could no longer do as they pleased and that people arrive in Italy on a regular basis. Now we had to take a step further ».

But the special protection concerns a relative number of immigrants, it looks more like a flag.

«No: humanitarian or special protection is a lock for which anyone who enters Italy can then hardly be expelled. The rules for expelling those who have no right to be welcomed are already cumbersome – unlike those who flee from war, or are persecuted, or have very serious health situations – but with special protection it is even more difficult to welcome those really need it and send back those who don’t have the requisites”.

You say that this institute exists only in Italy, but many countries have subsidiary forms of reception.

“But not so permissive. Here, thanks to humanitarian protection, those who should be expelled find a way to stay. We absolutely had to change.”

However, the protest erupts: the mayors of the large centre-left cities say that in this way those who should instead follow paths of integration and work are pushed into illegality.

«But the argument must be reversed: if we don’t act, there will be a continuous arrival of illegal immigrants who know that they will find a form of regularization here. But Italy cannot be the landing place for everyone».

In short, in the Chamber with the opposition do you see points of convergence?

«Honestly not, because theirs is an entirely ideological and political controversy. If we say white they say black, they just want to boycott our work».

And the Regions that do not recognize the state of emergency?

«What makes no sense: that there is an emergency is clear, we appoint a commissioner to help in the management and reception of all the territories while waiting for the requests of the migrants to be examined. Why say no?”

At the beginning, the League rejoiced: we return to Salvini’s 2018 Security decrees, which the Quirinale rejected. But it seems that this time there was a prior consultation with the Quirinale to avoid hitches. Is that so?

«The situation with respect to the safety decrees has changed, so there won’t be an equal provision, and we are certainly working on coherent and unassailable rules. But let’s not involve the Quirinale, it would be disrespectful ».

But are you sure that in the Chamber the League will not re-propose its own amendments that are much tougher than the unitary one of the center-right?

«We will see in the Chamber, but I believe that when a political agreement is made and an amendment signed by all the coalition parties is presented, then it is respected. I think it will be the same this time too.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Ppe group Manfred Weber told the Corriere newspaper that his party will fight for Europe to help Italy with immigration.

“Well. We would be even more pleased if words turned into deeds. Italy has the right not to be abandoned but helped: in rescues, in preventing landings, in aid to Africa, in the redistribution of migrants”.

Weber justified border walls.

“Yes, walls can be useful, but we have 8,000 kilometers of coastline, our problem is not building walls but making collective policies, first of all European”.

Do you also fear problems of public order?

«At the moment I would say no, but if the situation is not under control, it cannot be ruled out that serious problems will arise in the future. For this you need a serious, immediate squeeze ».