“Protection away for gay migrants”, the blitz of the League embarrasses Meloni

ROME.

Amendment 1.014, signed by Igor Iezzi, Northern League supporter, proposes to “suppress the reference to sexual orientation and gender identity among the reasons for persecution for which expulsion or refoulement cannot be ordered”. Well, we can start from here to tell what happened yesterday in the Chamber, the attempt by the League to restore Matteo Salvini’s security decrees, the amazement of the allies, the protest of the opposition, the split in the majority, the embarrassment of Giorgia Meloni and the intervention of Palazzo Chigi. In the Chamber, in a joint meeting of the Constitutional Affairs and Transport commissions, work is being done on the reconversion of the decree on NGOs passed by the government before New Year’s, expected in the Chamber on 2 February. The Northern League have a package of 15 amendments ready. They are all rejected. However, today there will be the second round and the response to the appeal presented by Carroccio will be known. The idea is to dismantle the decree on immigration which in 2020, during the Conte 2 government (majority M5S-Pd), served to neutralize and overcome the rules against migrants imposed by Salvini during Conte 1 (majority M5S-Lega) . The amendments contain a bit of everything, even proposals that were crossed out, also due to the risk of unconstitutionality, when the first version of the Security decrees arrived in the legal offices of the Quirinale. The League wants to dismantle the architecture of the special protection that the Giallorossi introduced after Salvini had canceled the humanitarian protection. Among the rights secured three years ago there is also that of LGBTQ migrants fleeing tribal bonfires and the machete. The data of recent years tell thousands of refugees who flee persecution for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity. According to a UNHCR report, in eight of the top ten countries from which the highest number of asylum requests in Italy come, love between homosexuals and transsexuals is not legal, and relationships considered “acts against nature”. Six of these countries are in Africa.

For the Northern League, these are numbers that count for little. Iezzi and Nicola Molteni, Salvini’s loyalist who remained at the Viminale as undersecretary – also present yesterday – are convinced that these persecutions are “just an excuse” to obtain asylum and avoid expulsion. The squeeze that the Carroccio is trying also foresees something else: it would make family reunification more complicated, it would reduce the duration of the residence permit for special protection from two to one year, it would double the term for detention of asylum seekers in repatriation centers up to 180 days , and would remove the possibility of addressing the Guarantor for the protection of persons deprived of their liberty.

Too much, even for allies. The most uncomfortable are the presidents of the two commissions, Nazario Pagano of Forza Italia and Salvatore Deidda of Fratelli d’Italia, who in the end declare all the amendments inadmissible. There is a smell of unconstitutionality, but to curb the assault by the League, the two presidents limit themselves to using the regulation and define the proposals as “extraneous to the matter of the decree”, concerning rescues at sea. Deidda keeps in touch with Palazzo Chigi. Meloni is informed. You want to avoid a theatrical clash but you don’t like that the League is trying to force a rule, “just to have something before the elections” in Lombardy on 12-13 February. Furthermore, FdI sources explain, in agreement with the Quirinale, the decree had been specifically cleaned up of other changes, precisely to focus it solely and exclusively on NGOs. Thus the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi had presented him in the CDM, thus the ministers had voted for him, including the Northern League.

Piantedosi yesterday was in Montecitorio. Apparently unaware of what was happening. Or so he says when he is intercepted at the buvette. Is it possible that he didn’t know of the amendments to his decree, presented by the party that wanted him to the Interior Ministry? “I didn’t know, you have to ask him,” says the minister pointing his finger at Molteni. On the sidelines of the proceedings, to appease Iezzi who accuses the allies of having made “a political choice”, Deidda proposes a mediation – “make an ad hoc decree” – which does not convince the undersecretary: “It would take too much time”. Salvini’s last hope is the appeal. But Riccardo Magi, of Più Europa, who together with Luca Pastorino was among the most lively in protesting, is certain that it will end in nothing. «The rulings of the Constitutional Court and the regulation of the Chamber speak for themselves. If they readmitted the amendments we would be faced with an abnormal and totally discretionary act”.