At a time when Europe is struggling to cope with illegal migration, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni's uncompromising approach to tackling the issue is generating widespread interest. The challenge of dealing with the large numbers of migrants seeking to make a better life for themselves in prosperous European countries is proving to be highly problematic for a number of prominent European leaders.
In Germany, the left-of-centre coalition headed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under threat from the growing popularity of right-wing parties, such as the AfD, which made significant gains in recent regional elections in eastern Germany. For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a similar threat from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which came close to winning a parliamentary majority in recent elections.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the challenge posed by the wave of illegal migrants who continue to make the perilous crossing across the English Channel is proving to be just as much of a headache for the new Labour government headed by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as it was for the previous Conservative administration.
One of Starmer’s first acts after winning July’s general election was to abandon the controversial Rwanda scheme devised by former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whereby migrants found to have entered the UK illegally would have been deported to the central African state. But having scrapped the previous British government’s plan to tackle the migrant issue, Starmer now finds himself under increasing pressure to come up with an alternative plan of his own, one that will be effective in ending the deadly cross-Channel migrant trade.
The scale of the problem facing the UK authorities was highlighted last weekend when more than 1,000 illegal migrants made their way across the English Channel to the UK, with the deaths of eight migrants, who died when their inflatable boat hit rocks off the French coast, highlighting the treacherous nature of the crossings.
With European leaders from London to Berlin desperate to find a solution to the issue, one that has the potential to cause them serious political damage, recent policies adopted by Italy have seen a significant reduction in the numbers of migrants making their way from North Africa to the Italian coast, are therefore attracting widespread attention.
Meloni’s success in becoming Italy’s prime minister in October 2022 owed much to her hard-line stand on the migration issue, with Italy struggling to cope with the boatloads of illegal migrants regularly travelling from countries such as Libya and Tunisia.
Her success, therefore, in implementing a range of policies that have resulted in the number of migrants travelling to Italy falling by 60% has impressed other European leaders, including Starmer, who travelled to Italy last week for his first face-to-face summit with the Italian premier.
Meloni’s success in tackling the migrant issue owes much to the support she has received from Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who oversaw the drafting of a European Union deal with Tunisia, whereby the North African country receives millions of euros to stop migrant boats from leaving, as well as investment in businesses and education aimed at deterring migration.
