dialogue between equals and the fight against traffickers – Corriere.it

Too big a problem, that of the movement of migrants and refugees, and too short a time, that of a debate that lasted an afternoon. These two aspects of the International Conference on Development and Migration tend to discourage immediate judgments. Giorgia Meloni considers it a success, but there is a long way to go for the evaluation to be unanimously shared.

Preceded at the microphone by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, flanked in the room from the other Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, the Prime Minister yesterday at the Farnesina continued to give a form more geared to her government needs to the statements on the phenomenon of migration and refugees that she made when she was leading the opposition. Italy and Europe need immigration, you recognized unlike yourself when you asked for a naval blockade to stop smugglers with migrants and refugees aboard run-down ships. At the same time, in her new version, the Prime Minister underlined: This is why we cannot continue to give the signal that those who enter illegally will be rewarded to the detriment of those who would like to do so legally.

It cannot be defined as a turning point, it cannot be considered an unchanged position. We have planned a three-year “flow decree” for the first time, increasing the quotas of legal entries compared to the past, Meloni claimed. He was referring to the Prime Minister’s decree of 7 July which, in the face of a demand for manpower estimated at 833,000 units, allows a total of 425,000 foreigners to enter Italy between the current year and 2025. It is perceived that the measure, although realistic in itself, is accompanied by words which, in addition to being the result of deeply rooted convictions, should serve to reassure centre-right voters accustomed in the past to other tones.

On the fight against illegal immigration, I think the priority should be that of strengthening collaboration between our police forces, said the Prime Minister to the representatives of about twenty countries including those on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East including five heads of state (Tunisia, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Mauritania, Cyprus) and eight heads of government. Then sentences aimed at reducing mistrust towards the heir of an Italian right that in Africa in the twentieth century was certainly not loved by everyone. What we inaugurate above all is a dialogue between equals, Giorgia Meloni wanted to guarantee. In hypothesizing a new international fund for aid in the future, phrases that certainly cannot annoy national governments and regime potentates: The big news that we will have is that the nations that receive the funds must also be those that decide how to spend them. Not the “I tell you how you solve your problems” approach.

The unspoken exchange that appears proposed in all of this would consist of funding from the North in exchange for blocks to departures in the South. There is a lot of material that is missing for the construction of the road that the Prime Minister has called the Rome process to pursue the objectives of the conference, an expression reported in the final communiqué. The participants are committed to working together with a shared and differentiated approach.

Titanic undertaking, if one considers that Tunisia is in great economic difficulty chaired by Kas Saed may be tempted to lean on the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa —, that Egypt is suffering from a deep crisis with inflation that had reached 33% in May, that the balance of the area is being redefined. And the presence of France, Germany and other Europeans was not expected at the Conference. There was convergence between Meloni and the president of the European Commission on two purposes. Ursula von der Leyen stated that the recent agreement with Tunisia is a model to emulate and added: The first potential field for cooperation is investment in clean energy.

The Political Diary newsletter

If you want to stay updated on political news, subscribe to the newsletter “Political Diary”. It is dedicated to Corriere della Sera subscribers and arrives twice a week at 12. Just click here.