Rome, April 17 The mayors of six major Italian cities, Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna and Florence, and the presidents of the regions of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Campania, Puglia and Valle d’Aosta , are rebelling against anti-immigration measures proposed by the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, such as the decision to eliminate “special protection” for migrants facing persecution and putting their lives at risk in their country.
The first to launch a battle against the government’s anti-immigration policy were the presidents of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Campania, Puglia and Valle d’Aosta who decided not to sign the ordinance of civil protection which appointed Valerio Valenti extraordinary commissioner to manage the migration flow within the framework of the state of emergency decreed by the Government.
The presidents of these regions, governed by the Democratic Party (PD), claim that there is no urgency on immigration and therefore oppose the signing. In this way, if the commissioner decides to build a center for the identification and repatriation of migrants in these regions, it must in any case be agreed and approved by the corresponding administration, a step that will not be necessary in the rest of the Regions.
They were joined by the mayors of six major Italian cities: Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna and Florence – all administered by progressives – and who expressed in a document their total opposition to the decree law which should arrive this week. Parliament for its approval and presented by the government after the shipwreck off Calabria (south), in which nearly 100 migrants lost their lives.
Antes de su aprobación se prevé introducir varias enmienda entre ellas de cancelar la “special protection” a los migrants, un type de permiso de residencia que se suma a las protections internacionales ya existentes y para aquellos que correrían peligro en el caso de regress a his country.
The mayors stressed that this protection is present in many European countries and also called for the “regularization of immigrants already present in Italy, also through the use of ius scholae (granting nationality to migrant children attending school).
The abolition of special protection has not yet been voted in Parliament and is currently being negotiated between political forces and therefore the situation is still provisional, but it continues to generate great controversy.
Meloni confirmed this Saturday to have “the objective of eliminating special protection, because it is additional protection compared to what is happening in the rest of Europe”, which the leader of the opposition and PD Elly Schlein called it a “shame”. ECE
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