Read Thucydides to curb populist immigration policies

We need more and possibly well-trained immigrants in the next three years, says Bank of Italy. Lessons from the great Athenian historian of 25 centuries ago, still useful today

It is not certain that ministers and prime ministers have read Thucydides. However often the great authors of 25 centuries ago reproduce exactly the issues on which western democracy is still divided today. The division between people’s democracy and census regimes runs through the entire history of the Greek poleis, the clash between West and East was born at the time of the Persian wars, the opposition between commercial empires of the sea and warlike empires of land is the reason for the Peloponnesian war , and will live again in Carl Schmitt’s Nomos della terra. In short, Thucydides is always needed, and not just him. Even on an issue that has become the flag of the current Italian government: the iron hand against refugees trying to cross the Mediterraneanthe decree of the prefect-minister Piantedosi which forbids NGO ships – let us repeat it: only slightly more than 10 percent of landings in Italy pass through their decks – more than one rescue at a time under penalty of sanctions issued by the prefects and without more proxies at hand, imposes ports of unloading hundreds of miles of sea, and then perhaps allocating the landed hundreds of kilometers away by bus.