The Italian government meets on Monday to adopt a decree which should circumvent the courts’ opposition to an agreement on migrants concluded with Albania.
The Italian government of Giorgia Meloni, combining the right and the populist right, meets on Monday to adopt a decree aimed at circumventing opposition from the courts to enforce a controversial agreement on migrants concluded with Albania. Meloni accused Rome court judges of political bias who ruled Friday that the first 12 migrants from Egypt and Bangladesh sent to Albania should be returned to Italy. A snub for the leader who intends to give her plan in “example” to Europe.
The decree aimed at circumventing this legal obstacle will be discussed during a council of ministers. It should include in law the list of 22 countries considered to be “safe” by the government, which means that Rome could urgently process asylum requests from migrants from these countries from Albania. While European law takes precedence over national law, Italian judges invoked a recent decision by the European Court of Justice stipulating that member states cannot designate as “safe” only entire countries, and not certain regions of these countries. However, the list established by Italy includes regions considered unsafe.
“I don’t think it’s up to judges to say which countries are safe, but to the government”a fustigé vendre by Giorgia Meloni. “I am sorry that while all of Europe is looking with interest at something that Italy is doing, as always they are trying to put obstacles in our way”she added in front of journalists. Italy is on the front line of arrivals of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from the coasts of North Africa.
Arm wrestling between Meloni and the judges
Giorgia Meloni, elected in 2022, had promised to stop migrant landings, accelerate repatriations and force her European neighbors to help the peninsula more. The government has already come up against the law when it wanted to oppose the rescue of migrants at sea by NGOs. Tension rose a notch on Sunday when Meloni disclosed on social networks extracts from the letter of a prosecutor’s judge to an association of magistrates. He warns against Meloni, “stronger and more dangerous” that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“We have to fix it”asserts judge Marco Patarnello in this internal letter, proof according to Meloni that the judges are acting against his government. The Italian opposition denounced the truncated publication of this extract and stressed that Ms. Meloni had not published the rest of the text, where the judge adds: “We must not engage in political opposition, but we must defend the courts and the right of citizens to independent justice”.
