The situation in Africa is not explosive, it has already exploded, said the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, looking for the causes of the crisis in Lampedusa. The main factors exacerbating the situation are climate change and the Russian blockade of the Black Sea, thanks to which Russia is starving African countries dependent on Ukrainian grain supplies. Is it a coincidence that in the wake of the migration crisis, politicians from right-wing parties that are more or less openly supported by Vladimir Putin are once again loudly heard?
It is not only the Polish right wing that is trying to make political capital from what is happening in Lampedusa. Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister of Italy and head of the far-right “League” party, wants to show an uncompromising attitude to his compatriots. It does not exclude the use of the navy in the Mediterranean Sea. Italians are convinced that their country is lonely. – What is happening in Lampedusa is the death of Europe. The dead child in the boat symbolizes the death of Europe, its political, cultural, social death, the death of values, because Italy was left to itself, says Salvini.
Salvini is trying to get out of the shadow of the much more popular Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, head of the rival populist party – Italian Brothers. Thus, he de facto starts an election campaign before next year’s European Parliament elections and is again betting on an alliance with the head of the French National Rally, Marine Le Pen. Both of them again focus on the anti-EU and anti-immigrant narrative.
But like Salvini, Le Pen also faces fierce competition in the country, for example in the form of her niece, Marion Marechal Le Pen, who belongs to another far-right party – Reconquista. Marion Marechal Le Pen even went to Lampedusa to argue that she is even more anti-migrant than her aunt. – It is clearly visible here that the Italian services are completely overloaded. You can really see the chaos here and it’s truly heartbreaking. But the disastrous humanitarian situation is the result of a completely unwise migration policy, says Marion Marechal Le Pen.
Lampedusa. Prime Minister Meloni: The Italian government intends to adopt extraordinary measures to deal with the number of migrantsTVN24, Reuters
Anti-immigrant rhetoric
The European far right is outraged by what is happening in Lampedusa, but at the same time it benefits politically. Frontex – the European Border Guard Agency – explains that one of the reasons for the sudden influx of migrants to the Italian island is the terrible situation in nearby Tunisia – where inflation and rising food prices are a huge problem. The clues lead to the Kremlin, which, by cutting off Africa for Ukrainian grain, is trying to force thousands of desperate people to start storming Europe again. And the response to the growing wave of migration is to be politicians more or less openly supported by Putin – Salvini, Le Pen, and politicians of the German AfD. – Look at what is happening in Lampedusa today. What’s happening in our hippie country. The time has come to finally say that Alternative for Germany will close the borders to ensure that criminals are deported, warns Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is trying to deal with the crisis in Lampedusa. On the one hand, it expects the rest of Europe to relieve Italy by accepting immigrants from Lampedusa, on the other hand, its long-standing anti-immigration rhetoric does not allow it to fully support the proposals for the intra-EU relocation of immigrants.
Meloni’s close ally, the PiS government, does not have to worry about an embarrassing request for help. Because Italy and the whole of Europe know that our country is still struggling with an immigration wave from Ukraine – much larger than that in the south of the continent, and therefore Poland is excluded from any relocation plans.
Facts about the World TVN24 BiS
Main photo source: REUETRS