Italy’s Meloni Putting Traffickers of Human Cargo on Notice

Traffickers of human cargo are being put on notice by Italy’s premier, Giorgia Meloni. Despite a recent Italian court ruling mandating the return to Italy of 12 Albanian detainees, the Prime Minister will not relent in her war on illicit migration.No amount of judicial overreach can take precedence over national security. Ours is “a model for Europe” averred Signora Meloni. Though she may be demonized by the chattering classes and the left, the premier aims to prevail in the struggle to protect Italy’s borders and Europe’s civilization.Under Prime Minister Meloni’s processing-center approach, legitimate asylum seekers and legal immigrants will not be shunned. Moreover, President von der Leyen of the European Commission has lauded Signora Meloni’s Italy-Albania compact as “out-of-the-box thinking.”“We should also continue to explore possible ways forward as regards the idea of developing return hubs outside the EU, especially in view of a new legislative proposal on return,” noted Ms. von der Leyen. “With the start of operations of the Italy-Albania protocol, we will also be able to draw lessons from this experience in practice.”Migrants on the deck of a rescue ship, in the Strait of Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea, November 5, 2022. AP/Vincenzo CircostaEven Poland’s Donald Tusk has recognized the efficacy of Signora Meloni’s solution. Writing on social media, the Polish prime minister declared: “It is our right and our duty to protect the Polish and European border. Its security will not be negotiated. With anyone.”CNN’s Robb Pichta, of course, demonized the post as “language more typically associated with the authoritarian populist bloc he defeated one year ago this week.” Yet as the president of Warsaw-based Institute of Public Affairs, Jacek Kucharczyk, noted: European “voters across the board expect that border security and migration controls are the priority.”Politicians who ignore the will of the people do so at their own peril. Yet some officials are unnerved by the recent Rome court ruling. One such figure is Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, who fears that a showdown with the magistrates might lead to a constitutional crisis and could trigger a backlash with the European Union.The head of state’s reticence is a genuine if timorous response to one court’s ruling. However, the not-so-loyal opposition’s opposition to the Meloni migration plan is but a knee-jerk rejection of any solution the Prime Minister proposes.Indeed, the leader of the left-wing Partito Democratico, Elly Schlein, rebuked the plan in a Kamala Harris-like word-salad objection that intermingled the specter of a threat to democratic norms with an impromptu call for diverting the migration funds to the healthcare system.The five-year program between Italy and Albania calls for Tirana to host 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard on a monthly basis to determine if such individuals are legitimate asylum seekers. If these migrants are miscreants, they will be sent back to their countries of origin.In the wake of last week’s court decision, an Italian navy ship was compelled to return the first 12 migrants back to Italy from the Albanian asylum processing center. In a leap to geopolitical judgment, the magistrates deemed Bangladesh and Egypt — the migrants’ countries of origin — to be unsafe.Bristling at such a ruling, Signora Meloni pointed out the judges’ illogic. If Bangladesh and Egypt are demonized in toto, that would bar nearly all migrants, rendering the entire program untenable.Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, immediately appealed the ruling. The justice minister, Carlo Nordio, noted that “the definition of a safe country cannot be up to the judiciary.”Signora Meloni vows to preserve her migration policy: “We’ll meet to approve some norms that will allow us to overcome this obstacle. I believe it’s up to the government and not magistrates to establish which countries can be considered safe.”And at an emergency Cabinet meeting on Monday, Signora Meloni’s government passed a new law overturning the ruling. The magistrates in question weaponized the judiciary in an ideological bid to topple the Premier and her agenda.In an excerpt published on Signora Meloni’s social media, one of the judges hissed that she is “stronger and much more dangerous” than the former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Unlike such malefactors, Ms. Meloni is defending Italy’s national borders, establishing diplomatic amity, and championing the Western way. Her bona fides are real — and spectacular.

Italy’s Meloni Putting Traffickers of Human Cargo on Notice

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