On immigration, the Government will speak "with one voice", assures the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini. Yet, in Giuseppe Conte's team the rift seems evident. Two days before the summit on migrants with his Parisians of the Union - scheduled for July 12 in Innsbruck - the number one of the Viminale reiterates that, after the stop to NGO ships, the goal is to prevent them from docking in Italian ports also to boats from other EU countries: "Redefining the contents of international missions, which cannot unload everything and everyone in Italy, will be the next inevitable step", explains Salvini in an interview with Messenger.
In other words, the interior minister aims to prevent any kind of landing until Europe finds an agreement on the redistribution of migrants. "Since the EU Council has decided that everything is on a voluntary basis - continues Salvini - Italy too will make its will felt". However, the issue remains hot and there does not seem to be complete harmony within the government: first the disagreement with the defense minister, then the distancing of the foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi proves it. Finally, in the last few hours, the tug of war with the Minister of Infrastructure Danilo Toninelli over the disembarkation of 60 shipwrecked people, collected near the Libyan coast by the Italian tug Vos Thalassa: for Salvini they should have been entrusted to the Libyan Coast Guard. In the end it was then decided that the castaways should be entrusted to the "Diciotti", a ship of the Italian Coast Guard, but the diversity of views among the ministers remains. "The Italian coastguard cannot replace the Libyan one, especially if its African colleagues have already taken action", is Salvini's last word. And the clash rebounds on Twitter:
Proud of @Coast Guard Italian ship that took on board Diciotti 60 migrants who were endangering the life of the crew of the Italian cruiser Vos Thalassa. Now forward with investigations to punish troublemakers.
- Danilo Toninelli (@DaniloToninelli) July 10 2018
Internal clashes, tensions abroad. "There will be difficult, very difficult talks with Italy and Greece, but they can succeed", he indeed commented German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer answering a question about the pushbacks from Germany of migrants who have already asked for asylum in those countries.
On this same issue, an internal clash in the government took place just two days ago. The Northern League Deputy Prime Minister had published this tweet:
On Thursday I will bring to the European table in Innsbruck the request to BLOCK the arrival in Italian ports of ships of international missions.
Unfortunately, the Italian governments of the last 5 years had signed agreements for all these ships to unload immigrants in Italy. pic.twitter.com/tnp16nifpy- Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) July 8 2018
And shortly after from the Ministry of Defense, led by the pentastellata Elisabetta Trenta, a controversial response had arrived: “Eunavformed is a European mission at the Foreign and Defense levels, not the Internal ones. What needs to be changed are the mission's rules of engagement and to do so it must be done in the competent offices, not in Innsbruck".
Not only. At the summit in Austria, Salvini also intends to deny Italy's collaboration with Germany and Austria on the secondary movements front: “In the Italian dossier there is no hypothesis of returning to Italy those who have gone abroad – says the deputy prime minister again to Il Messaggero – This is the last thing that can happen”.
But the Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi, when asked about Italy's position regarding a possible revision of the EU Sophia mission for the rescue of migrants at sea, cut short any doubts: "We are not withdrawing from international commitments, we are fully inside and we do not intend to move outside the framework of international law, therefore also European".
