The prime minister receives von der Leyen's positive response and hopes for progress already in the next European Council. Meanwhile, Meloni has time to see Matteo Salvini to shore up the government's strategy on migrants and to applaud Interior Minister Matteo Piantedoses' speech in the Chamber on the Cutro shipwreck.
Absent in the Chamber in the hours in which the head of the Interior Ministry holds his information under fierce attack of the opposition, Giorgia Meloni silences the rumors of disagreements and frictions in a note in which, in the evening, she puts in black and white that that massacre on the coasts of Crotonese - which now exceeds 70 victims and does not stop the dramatic count of the dead - "can not be the responsibility of the Coast Guard or the Guardia di Finanza who have operated with correctness", therefore "there were no shortcomings in rescue operations": as claimed by Piantedosi in the Chamber, "the tragedy was caused by the criminal behavior of smugglers".
With Salvini, at Palazzo Chigi, Meloni is developing the first steps of a long-term strategy that the government is defining on the migrant dossier, starting with Thursday's CDM to be held in Cutro. The government will have to march together, show itself close to a tragedy that has touched Italy and moved the European Union: von der Leyen's words give hope for progress already in the next European Council, to "prevent tragedies like those of Cutro from being repeated in the future", remarks Palazzo Chigi commenting on the response from Brussels.
The European Commission promises greater coordination in rescue and recovery activities, half a billion euros over two years for new settlements and humanitarian corridors, and closer cooperation with partners in North Africa, recognizing Italy's effort. On the European front, the government needs a sort of pact on Migration and Asylum, a dossier at the center of the next EU Council. The issue will also be addressed tomorrow by Meloni in the meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who insists on the application of the Dublin Regulation to limit secondary movements. Meanwhile, the answers and proposals put forward by von der Leyen, for Palazzo Chigi "correspond perfectly to the requests brought in recent months by the Italian government to the European institutions".
In the CDM on Thursday there will be no room for crackdowns or tightening on residence permits. The measures will go in the direction of increasing penalties for smugglers, strengthening humanitarian corridors and strengthening regular flows. In Cutro the rules contained in the Salvini decrees of 2018 will not find a home: this is not the time, later we will see, now there is only to hit those who are stained with a drama destined to remain in the history of the country. This is the message that will have to start loud and clear, without hesitation, from the village of Crotonese that has less than 10 thousand souls and that in days will see the government arrive in full.
Palazzo Chigi expressed its "applause" to Piantedosi for "the timely exposition of the facts". A note to reiterate that the government has nothing to reproach itself, "at the time of the Frontex report the boat did not present navigation problems", and therefore the shipwreck "cannot be the responsibility" of the Coast Guard or the Guardia di Finanza.