First on Fox – a close associate of Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni told Fox News Digital that criticism against her for abandoning policies on illegal immigration and other issues is unfounded.
“Giorgia Meloni has not changed, Europe has changed,” Italy’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Edmundo Cirelli, told Fox News Digital. Cirelli is co-founder and national coordinator of Meloni’s party, the Fratelli d’Italia party.
He said that Italy is inspiring President of the European Union To adhere to his strong conservative stance.
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia, in Rome on September 22, 2022, for the conclusion of the election campaign for the general elections in Italy on September 25, 2022. (Getty Images)
He said that Ursula von der Leyen’s Europe is paying attention to Italy’s policies and “listening to Italy’s reasons. Italy always wants the nations in Europe to be strong and to lead the rest of the countries.” European Union On this. Von der Leyen herself joins Meloni in action against illegal immigration. They have already intervened in Egypt and Tunisia. “We will soon do the same in Libya.”
He said, “Among other things, there are European elections coming up in a few months and the European Conservative Party, led by Giorgia Meloni, will give a new direction to this Europe. And the European Parliament, the European People’s The party itself needs to take into account the problems that exist today and which Giorgia Meloni identified during her election campaign.”
Migrants at a migrant accommodation center on the Italian island of Lampedusa are guided by a security officer on September 14, 2023, as they prepare to board the ship “Galaxy” bound for the Sicilian city of Porto Empedocle. The island struggled to cope with the increase in migrant boats from North Africa after the number reached 7,000 people, equal to the entire local population. (Photo by Alessandro Serrano/AFP via Getty Images)
The birth rate in Italy is set to fall to a record low in 2023 for the 15th consecutive annual decline. In 2023, Italy recorded 379,000 births, a 3.6% decrease from 2022.
Cirelli said that the problem is not only of Italy, but of the entire Western Europe. In its 2024 budget, Italy earmarked nearly 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) for a series of measures aimed at addressing Italy’s demographic crisis.
“We are implementing a series of policies aimed at supporting births, birth rates and young couples, both at an economic and financial level, and this is clearly also a social phenomenon. It is about that life is an opportunity and an opportunity for happiness for all,” the Deputy Foreign Minister said.
In this image taken from a video released by the Italian coast guard on Thursday, April 11, 2024, a boat filled with migrants is being tended to as part of a rescue operation near the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian Coast Guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies after a smuggler’s boat capsized in a storm about 30 miles south of the island of Lampedusa on Thursday, April 10, 2024. (Photo: Italian Coast Guard.)
The journey from North Africa to Italy has become one of the busiest migration routes, with migrant arrivals expected to increase by 50% in 2023 compared to the previous year, data shows.
Cirelli accompanied Prime Minister Meloni last week on his fourth visit to trip to tunisia In a year when he signed new agreements as part of Italy’s “Mattei Plan” for Africa.
Italy’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, left, signs the agreement with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Tunisian President Kais Saied, center right. (Photo: Gerardo Antelmo/Office of Deputy Minister Edmundo Cirelli.) (Gerardo Antelmo/Office of Deputy Minister Edmundo Cirelli)
“We are facing an epoch-making fact that does not belong only to Italy,” Cirielli said.
More than 63,000 migrants have been killed or missing since 2014, the UN agency reports
The Mattei Plan seeks to tackle education and training, agriculture, health, water and energy development, while it aims to make Italy an energy hub for the transport of natural gas supplies from Africa to the rest of Europe.
“First of all, we are intervening in agreements with North African countries to stop migration from these shores, but above all, we are trying to come to the places of origin of migration. They are trying to help development. And also provide legal channels for migration because the real problem is not migration but the criminal organizations behind it. smuggling of migrants Which is creating a new slave trade.”
He continued, “This globalization is becoming very powerful on a financial level, exploiting this trafficking and thus destabilizing Africa, creating criminal organizations that launder this money from international trafficking, Spend on drugs, weapons, and often even support causes.” Terrorist organization.”
Under Italy’s rotating leadership, G-7 foreign ministers met last week on the Italian resort island of Capri New sanctions against Iran On his attacks against Israel.
“Italy, which chairs the G-7, has condemned Iran’s action And knows very well that Iran is carrying out a destabilizing action in the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East, but it is equally true that we do not need to increase the tension… On a consular office, diplomatic headquarters by Israel Bombing was also a risky task. On the other hand, all G-7 noted that Iran’s response was a response, a balanced, moderate response compared to this time’s episode.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Jolie, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourn and Italian Foreign Minister 18 April Antonio Tajani meets on the second day of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Capri, Italy, 2024. (Reuters/Remo Casilli/Pool)
“It was understood that the Iranian government does not want to escalate tensions and so everyone in the G-7 agreed with Biden and Giorgia Meloni and the invitation to neighbors who are close and especially ready to support Israel,” Cirielli said. Are.” Israel has the right to defend itself and Israel has the right to exist, but we must de-escalate tensions and prevent a regional war over this issue in Gaza.”
In December, Italy retreated China’s Belt and Road Initiative The purpose of which was to rebuild the Silk Road to connect China to Asia and Europe by increasing China’s infrastructure spending on roads and shipping routes.
Cirelli says the step back does not pose a hindrance to relations between Italy and China but is in the best interests of Italian business.
“It was a mistake of the Conte government and the centre-left governments, which made a political agreement before us because it seemed incompatible with the North Atlantic Treaty and the EU alliance… We concluded this agreement at the natural deadline. Given and are establishing a new economic-social partnership, as France and Germany know, therefore, there is no interruption of relations, but a different modulation based on ancient, thousand-year-old relations almost exclusively between the Italic peoples and “The Chinese people, based entirely on good dialogue, win-win trade.”
He concluded, “The opposition had said that it is not wrong to have diplomatic relations or economic relations with China, it is wrong to have political relations behind the accords China has initiated towards the world.”
