The Northern League offensive for a new squeeze on migrants. And the intervention of Rome to convince the president Saied- Corriere.it

Migrants landed on Italian coasts in the first three months of the year
they are quadruple compared to 2022, when Mario Draghi was at Palazzo Chigi and Giorgia Meloni led the opposition.
The numbers of the Viminale agitate the government and worry the presidents of the southern regions who, from Calabria to Sicily, fear being “overwhelmed” by the phenomenon.
And even if the issue is not on the agenda of today’s Council of MinistersAntonio Tajani and Matteo Piantedosi will try to bring it to the table of Palazzo Chigi.

“Tunisia risks exploding”, is the fear of the owners of the Farnesina and the Interior Ministry, who expect an exponential growth in arrivals. The interior manager praised the “change of pace” that Meloni would have impressed to the dossier most identifying for the right and now the government must convince the Italians that the premier has not returned from Brussels, to quote Elly Schlein, “with a fistful of flies in hand”.

The Italian plan, if it can be defined as such, is the sum of a series of political and diplomatic actions and pressures aimed at Europe, to the USA and to those North African countries from which the boats loaded with human lives leave. EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni was on a mission to Tunis yesterday, to ask for democratic reforms and promise financial support. The face-to-face meeting with President Kais Saied almost fell apart for agenda reasons and Rome, also through the mediation of the Italian embassy, ​​moved to avert the incident. Tajani spoke with his Tunisian counterpart Nabil Ammar and invited him to Italy to discuss “an overall package” of bilateral agreements. The priority remains to convince the IMF to unblock the maxi loan of 1.9 billion to Tunisia, granting the money in tranches. “But it is a difficult negotiation,” Tajani will explain in CDM, who in recent days has worked in tandem with Meloni to raise awareness of various European countries on the Tunisian problem.

For now, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia have shown interest and at the Farnesina, as at Palazzo Chigi, they are confident in the “harmony” shown by Macron during his face-to-face meeting with the Italian premier in Brussels. Meloni considers the newfound agreement with France on the migration issue to be “very important” and is looking closely at the joint mission to Tunisia of the Italian and French interior ministers, Piantedosi and Darmanin.

The trip to promote coordinated management of the phenomenon is scheduled for April, but the date has yet to be set. The rest, Meloni strongly hopes, Europe will have to do by the end of June. Strengthen Frontex, increase appropriations to control sea borders and implement surveillance systems. But no one in the prime minister’s entourage seems to believe that a new EU military operation for maritime security could soon take off, which follows the Sophia mission. There is an international front and there is an internal one, which concerns the rescue and distribution of migrants.

“Three thousand people were saved over the weekend alone,” they claim at Palazzo Chigi, mindful of the controversies of Cutro’s dramatic days. According to the latest data, there are 130,000 people in reception in our country. In order not to alarm the population, Piantedosi does not deem it necessary to use the abandoned barracks and has instructed the prefects not to “stress” the individual territories with massive arrivals of fleeing Africans, favoring “widespread reception”. Meanwhile Salvini is pushing to strengthen the grip. The League presented 15 amendments to the Cutro decree to the Senate. These range from the “further reduction of special protection”, to cuts in the services provided in the extraordinary reception centers (Cas), such as language courses.