The two prime ministers have forced immigration onto the agenda at European Political Community summit in Granada
Giorgia Meloni has turned to the UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak to take her battle against migration beyond the EU, it has emerged.
In what some are dubbing the Spanish framework, the prime ministers have forced migration on to the agenda at a historic meeting of about 50 European leaders in Granada on Thursday.
Continue reading...Commission says it is ‘cracking down’ on smuggling networks as NGOs say more assistance is needed from Europe’s leaders. This live blog is closed
The Paris public prosecutor’s office said today that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and 24 others should stand trial over alleged misuse of EU funds, Reuters reports.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, have used the situation in Lampedusa “for political campaigning,” according to Dutch European parliament member Sophie in ‘t Veld.
Continue reading...Foreign affairs chief in clash with Ursula von der Leyen as he issues broadside against ‘unilateral action’
EU member states expressed “incomprehension” when the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, rushed into a migration pact with Tunisia, it has been revealed.
The concerns were raised in July both verbally and in writing, the EU’s chief diplomat responsible for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, wrote in a letter dated 7 September that has been seen by the Guardian.
Continue reading...Far-right Giorgia Meloni says crisis cannot be ‘just resolved within Italian borders’ on visit to island where 8,500 arrived in days
Italy’s prime minister has said that European countries must work together “to stop departures [from Africa]” and swiftly deport those turned down for asylum, who she said “threaten the future of Europe”, after thousands of people seeking refuge arrived on Lampedusa in the last week.
Giorgia Meloni toured the tiny Sicilian island, which for years has been the first port of call for people making the treacherous journey by sea from north Africa, on Sunday morning alongside Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
Continue reading...Giorgia Meloni called on to condemn partner who appeared to suggest women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk
A row has erupted in Italy after a journalist and the partner of Giorgia Meloni appeared to suggest that women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk, with opposition parties calling on the prime minister to distance herself from his comments.
“If you go dancing you are fully entitled to get drunk ... but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble, because then you’ll find the wolf,” Andrea Giambruno said on his show on the right-leaning channel Rete 4 after recent high-profile gang rape cases near Naples and in Palermo.
Continue reading...Calls for overhaul of defamation laws in Italy after legal action brought against Brian Molko
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is suing Placebo frontman, Brian Molko, for defamation after publicly calling her “racist” and “fascist”, according to local media reports.
Molko made the comments during a performance by the band at the Sonic Park festival in Stupinigi outside Turin in July. “Giorgia Meloni, piece of shit, fascist, racist,” he appeared to shout in Italian in footage posted on social media by fans who attended the gig.
Continue reading...Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples
The Italian parliament has approved a bill criminalising people who go abroad to have children via surrogacy, a measure described as “a disgrace”.
The bill, passed in the chamber of deputies with 166 votes in support and 109 against, is aimed only at Italians and envisages fines of up to €1m (£856,690) and jail terms of up to two years for those who break it.
Continue reading...Italian PM needs a stable Forza Italia but without its longtime leader there are questions over its survival
For better or worse, Silvio Berlusconi held a formidable sway over Italian politics for almost three decades, navigating even his own troubled times with such a finely honed instinct for survival that he left even critics enthralled by his apparent invincibility.
But as his life’s legacy is contemplated, the death of Berlusconi, who was elected prime minister three times, raises questions over the survival of his Forza Italia party and the impact his absence will have on Giorgia Meloni’s ruling government coalition.
Continue reading...Billionaire former prime minister, 86, had been suffering from a lung infection linked to leukaemia
Silvio Berlusconi has been discharged from hospital in Milan, declaring “the nightmare” is over, more than six weeks after the former Italian prime minister was admitted with leukaemia and a lung infection.
“Today, after 45 long days, I finally returned home,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said in a statement after leaving the San Raffaele Hospital on Friday.
Continue reading...Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Continue reading...The former Italian prime minister was speaking for the first time since he was hospitalised a month ago
The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his first address to the public since being hospitalised a month ago, delivering a video message to party members from his hospital room.
“Here I am, here for you, wearing a shirt and jacket for the first time in a month,” the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul said, in a pre-recorded address to a convention of his right-wing Forza Italia party.
Continue reading...Far-right Italian prime minister in London for ‘new beginning’ aiming at deeper and wider alliance between the countries
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has praised the work undertaken by her British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, to fight people traffickers and clandestine immigration networks, as two of the most prominent rightwing leaders in Europe met in Downing Street.
At the start of a two-day visit designed to deepen relations between the two governments, Meloni was greeted outside Downing Street by a small group of demonstrators carrying placards reading “stand up to racism” and “no to fascist Meloni”.
Continue reading...Italy’s new rightwing government put a strong emphasis on traditional family values during elections
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Milan in protest against moves by Italy’s new rightwing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.
“You explain to my son that I’m not his mother,” read one sign held up amid a sea of rainbow flags that filled one of the northern city’s central squares.
Continue reading...PM to reassert support for Ukraine after coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi blamed Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has arrived in Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and reiterate Italy’s support for the war-torn country, as she navigates tensions on the issue within her rightwing alliance and divided public opinion.
Tuesday’s trip is seen as one of the most significant made by Meloni since she came to power in October and comes a week after her coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi, the Forza Italia leader, blamed Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Andrea Costantino says he has been in tiny room since release from prison on ‘totally unfounded’ charges of funding terrorism
An Italian man trapped for six months in his country’s embassy in the UAE has claimed he is the victim of a diplomatic spat between the two states and pleaded with Giorgia Meloni’s government to bring him home.
Andrea Costantino, 49, said he had been living a “Groundhog day-like” existence in a tiny room at the Italian embassy in Abu Dhabi since being released in late May from the emirate’s notorious maximum-security prison, Al Wathba, where he spent more than a year on charges of funding terrorism in war-torn Yemen after shipping a cargo of diesel to a client there.
Continue reading...Anti-mafia journalist to appear in court in Rome over comments made about policy towards migrants drowning in Mediterranean
Italy’s new far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is suing one of the world’s best-known journalists, the anti-mafia and human rights campaigner Roberto Saviano, for criminal defamation, over remarks he made regarding her policy towards migrants drowning in the Mediterranean sea.
This is the second time in just under four years that senior government ministers have targeted Saviano, 43, with criminal proceedings, despite a duty to protect him after the Neapolitan Camorra issued a death threat following publication of his book Gomorrah in 2006.
Continue reading...Children and the sick were allowed off when boat run by German organisation SOS Humanity docked in Sicily
In the first test of its immigration policy, Italy’s new far-right government has prevented 35 asylum seekers from disembarking from their boat, claiming they did not qualify for asylum.
On Saturday night, Rome allowed the ship Humanity 1, run by the German search-and-rescue organisation SOS Humanity and carrying 179 people, to enter the port of Catania, in Sicily, and begin disembarking only children and sick or “vulnerable” people.
Continue reading...Brothers of Italy politician Galeazzo Bignami says he feels ‘profound shame’ over wearing swastika in 2005
A Brothers of Italy politician who was once photographed wearing a Nazi swastika armband is among the junior ministers appointed in Giorgia Meloni’s government.
Galeazzo Bignami, named undersecretary at the infrastructure ministry, caused controversy after a photograph of him wearing the armband was published by an Italian newspaper in 2016. The photo dated back to his stag party in 2005, and after it initially emerged in the press he shrugged the gesture off as a bit of “lighthearted” fun.
Continue reading...Picture of dictator along with text exalting in his seizure of power 100 years ago reportedly placed by far-right militants
Neofascist militants have hung a banner from a bridge near the Colosseum in the Italian capital to celebrate Friday’s 100th anniversary of Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome.
The banner, which features a large picture of the fascist dictator wearing military uniform alongside the words “100 years after, the march continues”, appeared on the Ponte degli Annibaldi, a small elevated bridge close to Italy’s most visited cultural monument, on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Leader restates support for Ukraine and vows crackdown on illegal immigration in address to MPs
Giorgia Meloni said she felt a “burden weighing on my shoulders” after “breaking the heavy glass ceiling” to become Italy’s first female prime minister, in an address to parliament restating her pledge to back Ukraine and her opposition to illegal immigration.
Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots, has taken the helm of Italy’s most rightwing government – which includes Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia – since the second world war.
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