Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/992522
OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JUNE 2018 23 THE new Italian government sworn on June 1 was described by The New York Times as a populist one that articulates vision, but few specifics. I have no doubt, however, that it is bound to give the Mediter- ranean a specifically new kind of summer. Matteo Salvini, the Federal Secretary of Lega (Nord) – ac- tually the leader of the party in Italian political terms – is now the new Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of the Interior. On 21 December 2017, Sal- vini presented the new elec- toral logo for the Lega Nord for the 2018 general election: for the first time since its foundation the party ran in all the constituencies of the country, using a logo without the word 'Nord'. 'La Lega' was a resounding success, becom- ing the third largest party in Italy with 17.4% of the vote. The party ran on an anti-im- migrant ticket, amongst other things. On being appointed minister of the interior, he immediately stated that his main aim was to drastically reduce the number of illegal immigrants to Italy. That is why Malta will probably have a new kind of summer this year. Following some sort of tacit agreement with former Italian PM Matteo Renzi – another Matteo – and Maltese PM Joseph Muscat, the number of illegal immigrants landing in Malta in the last four sum- mers had dwindled to practi- cally nil. This Matteo is a different kettle of fish and political observers think that Malta is in for a long hot summer, spending days of bickering with Italy about where illegal migrants floating in skimpy boats would be allowed to land. It seems that Salvini's knowledge of Mediterranean geography is no way better than that of Roberto Maroni – another Lega Nord politi- cian who was minister of the interior during the first and second Silvio Berlusconi cabi- nets – who apparently did not realise that there are islands within Italian territory that are nearer to Northern Africa than Malta. Last Friday Sal- vini repeated the geographical untruth that Malta is nearer to North Africa than Italy – as if Lampedusa, Linosa and Pantelleria are not part of Italy's sovereign territory. It is very significant that Sal- vini's first foray outside Rome after his appointment was in Sicily – in Catania where he went to bolster his party's chances in the impending the elections for the Local Coun- cil (Comune) of the Sicilian city. Left-wingers whistled and called him fascist, but he seemed unperturbed. Not so when he went to Pozzallo where he was greeted by many and where he proclaimed that Sicily will no longer serve as the refugee camp of Europe. Pozzallo is the nearest Italian port to Malta and it is where many illegal migrants picked up from the Mediterranean are landed; the other port being Lampedusa. Salvini also accused Tunisia of knowingly sending mi- grants with convictions across the Mediterranean – provok- ing the North African country to issue a strongly-worded rebuke. Tunisia even sum- moned the Italian ambassador to register its profound aston- ishment about the comments made by Salvini. Interviewed on BBC, an Italian Opposition MP said that the previous government had relied for a long time on EU solidarity and when it started to do its own thing – including financing a dubious organisation that controlled migrants leaving Libya – it was too late. In short the EU failed in its obligations of soli- darity with Italy on the immi- gration issue and the people responded by strengthening the vote of a right-wing party that campaigned on an anti- immigrant and an anti-EU ticket. In fact, anti-immigrant par- ties are going from strength to strength in most EU states, while mainstream politicians talk of European values. But what does this term mean? Austria had no qualms sending armed personnel at its border with Italy to ensure that no undocumented mi- grants cross the frontier into the country. Viktor Orbán has built fences along the Hun- garian border. And the farce continues. Suffice to say that the Schengen agreement is sup- posed to lead to persons who are in an EU state that is a Schengen member, to be able to cross from one country to another without showing documents. The only unwrit- ten exception seems to be undocumented immigrants who need to show documents that they do not have! European values Writing in The Guardian re- cently, Daniel Trilling insists that one of the myths about the refugee crisis is that it is a threat to European values. "European values" have been invoked both in support of refugees and migrants and to attack them. Demagogues such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán have projected them- selves as defenders of a Chris- tian European civilisation, enacting anti-migrant policies to protect Europe from being overrun by Muslim hordes. On the other hand, hu- manitarians have frequently appealed to a vision of Eu- rope like the one set out by José Manuel Barroso in 2012, when the EU was awarded the Nobel peace prize: "As a community of nations that has overcome war and fought totalitarianism," Barroso said in his acceptance speech, "we will always stand by those who are in pursuit of peace and human dignity." Trilling argues that both vi- sions are wrong. The first tries to erase the fact that Europe is a diverse continent, in which Chris- tian, Muslim, Jewish and secular traditions have been present for centuries. The second vision presents Europe as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world – an aspiration that will remain unfulfilled if we ignore the fact that while the nations of Europe have overcome war and fought totalitarianism, many of these same nations became rich and powerful by conquering and administer- ing huge empires, which were partially justified by the idea of European racial supremacy. In the debate about refugees and immigration, people's struggles are ignored or dismissed depending on their background, with little discussion of how Europe might have contributed to the situation of the countries the migrants leave behind – either historically, or through the military and economic policies of current govern- ments. And when local conflicts involving newly arrived refu- gees break out in European countries, many commenta- tors jump seamlessly from an incident that needs a consid- ered response, to a declara- tion of an existential threat to Europe from its Muslim minority. "At its extreme end, this is genocidal logic, of a kind Europe has known in its past," writes Trilling, who insists that a more honest conversa- tion about the crisis would involve a reckoning with Europe's own past. This Matteo is a different kettle of f ish and political observers think that Malta is in for a long hot summer, spending days of bickering with Italy about where illegal migrants f loating in skimpy boats would be allowed to land Summertime, and the livin's (not) easy Michael Falzon micfal@maltanet.net Lega leader Matteo Salvini