Commentary
Meloni prepares for the battle for Albania
Giorgia Meloni is faced with the failure of a model on which she has banked heavily at the European level, but perhaps she’ll gain some votes.
At the Quirinal Palace, the president and his staff are waiting for the beginning of next week, in the classic atmosphere of frozen tension that precedes major battles. This time, after the first migrants sent to the Albanian detention centers had to be suddenly returned to Italy after a Rome court ruled on Friday against the government’s contention that they came from “safe countries” – the institutional clash is a serious one: much more serious than in the days of the tug-of-war between Silvio Berlusconi and the judges and magistrates.
The stakes are much higher than the case of one person, and it will be fought with far more than just explosive statements: after the Council of Ministers that will start on Monday at 6 p.m., some heavy artillery is expected.
More precisely, the government is planning to approve a decree-law which will be sent to the president for signing. Its text will certainly be presented in advance by undersecretary Mantovano to the president’s general secretary, Zampetti.
The opposition would have greatly appreciated a stand by President Mattarella condemning the statements of Justice Minister Nordio who attacked the judges who ruled on the case, and whom the opposition parties have accused of a serious violation of norms. But the President has been immovable on the matter: he would only assess actions taken, not statements, no matter how controversial.
However, no one is under any illusion that the government will limit its reaction to an appeal against the Rome ruling before the Court of Cassation, as already announced by Interior Minister Piantedosi, or to the request for detailed clarifications that the center-right coalition is expected to send to the European Court of Justice regarding its October 4 ruling, which to a large extent represents the supranational legal basis on which the Rome Court's ruling rests.
Prime Minister Meloni’s irritation remains at alert levels, and more distance from the shock ruling on Friday didn’t seem to have helped. She is still convinced that “the politicized part of the judiciary” wants to “enshrine the right to migrate however one pleases and prevent the government from fighting illegal immigration.”
But as of Saturday, at least, the government had not managed to find a truly effective counter-move, i.e. one that could remove the decision-making power from the ordinary courts. The most-looked-at option has been using a decree to shift jurisdiction over the matter to justices of the peace, but that is an option that the government already examined and then discarded because it was impracticable in the past. Moreover, it would mean getting into a head-on clash with Mattarella – president of the Republic and of the Superior Council of the Magistracy – which the premier wants to avoid.
So, unless they come up with something else at the last minute, the centerpiece of the government’s next move will be establishing the list of “safe countries” by decree-law instead of inter-ministerial decree as before.
However, if this is what the government goes for, that won’t be enough to avoid rulings like the one that forced them to return the first twelve migrants sent to Albania back to Italy, where they arrived on Saturday.
Not only because the decree-law would not overrule the European Court's verdict, but also because there is a wealth of leverage points in international law that would allow blocking repatriations, on a case-by-case basis.
And at that point, the institutional clash would be head-on and unprecedented, all the more so if the decree-law is written in such a way as to blatantly contradict the European ruling, which has constitutional status.
The magistrates themselves would have to call in the Supreme Court, which in the end will probably be called upon to rule in any case, because this is both the objective and the natural outcome of an institutional conflict such as the one the Meloni government is preparing to unleash.
The government are aware that they have no decisive weapons at its disposal. However, by taking the war to its extreme consequences, they aim at exerting a pressure on the judges that they hope will be unbearable, made even heavier by the “interest” that many countries have shown in the Protocol with Albania. But above all, they aim to squeeze the maximum amount of electoral support from the affair.
It is no coincidence that the most satisfied leader in the majority right now is Matteo Salvini – who, more than anyone else, and much more than the premier herself, has been pushing hard to turn the clash on immigration into an exclusively political one, ever since the beginning. As for Meloni, since she is faced with the failure of a model on which she has banked heavily at the European level, perhaps gaining votes is only a consolation prize. But still, it’s nothing to sneeze at.
Precisely with the intention of making the conflict as extreme as possible, the government is considering sending more migrants to Albania by next week. They run the risk of having to bring them back in a few hours; but what matters is that the clamor would become deafening.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/meloni-prepara-la-guerra-dalbania on 2024-10-20