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Premier Guiseppe Conte with President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace. Wikipedia
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Italy’s new government green-lights NGO landings

The new direction of the Italian Conte II Cabinet regarding migrants has been outlined, and it is a different route, if not the opposite, to the one taken in the last 14 months by Matteo Salvini.

Published: September 10, 2019, 10:06 am

    With the arrival of Luciana Lamorgese at the head of the Interior Ministry, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the Democratic Party and the M5S are preparing to dismantle what has been done by the leader of the League.

    The first objective, noted Italian daily Corriere , is to overcome the Dublin treaty, but above all the desire to “distance oneself from the management of the Brussels attack wanted by Matteo Salvini”.

    At the EU Commission, where Paolo Gentiloni will play an important role, the new government, according to the Via Solferino newspaper, will be preparing to “accept the disembarkation of NGO ships and military vessels involved in aid in the Mediterranean, with the guarantee that at least some foreigners will immediately find hospitality in other EU states”.

    This plan is known as the “Triton model” suggesting the “shared management of maritime border control”.

    All migrants picked up at sea will be brought to Italy, given that the agreement provides that “all naval units participating in the operation and operating under the command of Rome are authorized by Italy to land on its territory, in safe conditions, and the people intercepted and saved”.

    In exchange the Interior Ministry, together with the Foreign Ministry of Luigi Di Maio, could ask the EU to fix quotas for the redistribution of migrants. However, several countries have always responded negatively to the idea of ​​mandatory quotas. The government will then have to be content with the simple “willingness of other states to welcome migrants when they are on board ships”, as has happened in the past.

    With Salvini in government and the blocking of ships, this supposed “willingness” was exposed as a great barrier.

    On the readmission of illegal migrants, the goal of the government would be to ensure by means of a “delegation to the European Commission a broader agreement involving international structures such as the IOM and UNHCR, just to reiterate the need for a shared strategy that does not single out our country as being ‘the only gateway to Europe'”.

    Finally, the new government will also work on revising the Security Decree, in particular, the fines against the human-trafficking NGOs given the “obligation to provide assistance to those who find themselves in difficulty envisaged by international conventions”.

    League leader Salvini on Monday blasted the new government as Conte addressed the Lower House ahead of two confidence votes in parliament.

    Salvini told a demonstration in front of the Lower House that the “piece of Italy” protesting against the new government represented the “majority in the country asking for a vote”. He said: “Today the division between the closed palace and the Italy in the street” is “evident”.

    The former minister said he sent greetings to the “poltronari”, referring to politicians he accused of clinging on to their posts, adding that “we continue to ask honor and dignity”, addressing demonstrators.

    Salvini pulled the plug on Conte’s first government last month, prompting his former partners in the 5-Star Movement (M5S) to agree a pact with the Democratic Party (PD) to form a new executive. The League chief wants early elections.

    The Facebook and Instagram accounts of pro-Italian sovereignist groups CasaPound and Forza Nuova (FN) were meanwhile blocked on Monday. The official profiles of the movements are no longer accessible, as well as those of many national, local and provincial chiefs including candidates elected in many Italian cities.

    “This is an unprecedented attack. We are disgusted,” said CasaPound President Gianluca Iannone. “It is a situation that reflects the current situation of the government of (clinging to) posts.

    “We will file an urgent class action law suit against an act of disgraceful prevarication”. A Facebook spokesman told ANSA that “persons or organisations that spread hatred or attack others on the basis of who they are will not have a place on Facebook and Instagram”.

    He said “the accounts which we removed today violate this policy and will not be able to be present on Facebook or Instagram”. It is not the first time that Facebook has taken such action against CasaPound.

    In April, shortly before the European elections, the profiles of some CasaPound exponents were blocked for the same reasons. Both Casapound and FN accused the two social media platforms of “quashing freedom of thought”.

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