Meloni’s government hopes for Morawiecki’s third term

The Italian government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, hopes that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will be reappointed for a third term despite the opposing positions on immigration taken at recent EU summits.

Poland will go to the polls on Sunday, with Morawiecki’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) and the Civic Coalition of former prime minister and ex-European Council President Donald Tusk.

As the leader of the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament, Meloni has always been a close ally of Morawiecki, whose party is also in the ECR. However, at recent EU summits, Italy and Poland disagreed on an important issue to the Italian government: irregular immigration.

“We hope for a broad reconfirmation of the conservative coalition led by PiS, which has worked well in recent years, representing a bulwark for Europe in defending the eastern front from Russian expansionism”, MEP Carlo Fidanza, head of the Fratelli d’Italia-ECR delegation in the European Parliament, told Euractiv.

According to Fidanza, Poland’s efforts to contain the Russian threat have not been sufficiently appreciated by Brussels, which has allegedly used the “rule of law” issue to block national recovery plan funds earmarked for Warsaw, putting the Morawiecki-led government in a difficult position.

“The hope is that, after the desirable reappointment of the current government majority, the EU Commission will also finally accept the response of the ballot box and return to being a reliable partner for Poles”, Fidanza added.

One of the most sensitive issues that bring Italy and Poland together is the migration dossier, with Meloni calling for a European effort to stop the flows and Morawiecki instead opposing the redistribution of migrants among EU countries.

“The position of the Polish government on migration, beyond the campaign tones of the last few months, is very clear and determined on the need to protect more and better the external borders of the Union, as moreover provided for in the Treaties”, Fidanza explained.

“On this issue, there is total agreement with the Meloni government: blocking departures and crushing human trafficking is the only medium and long-term solution to irregular immigration”, he added.

At last week’s summit in Granada, European countries agreed to tackle the migrant crisis collectively, but Meloni’s allies Poland and Hungary opposed the deal, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban calling it “legal rape”.

“The position of Poland and Hungary does not prejudice our work”, Meloni commented after the summit, stressing, however, that on “fundamental issues”, the consensus is unanimous.

However, according to Fidanza, the different positions conservative leaders have taken on the new European agreements are because Italy, Poland and Hungary have different geographical situations and types of immigration.

“The Poles have taken millions of Ukrainian refugees into their homes practically without significant contributions from Brussels. Understandably, they do not accept the mandatory redistribution of illegal immigrants that, until recently, the EU has done nothing to stop”, says the conservative MEP.

“Italy, on the other hand, defends a maritime border and needs Europe to conclude strong partnerships with African countries of origin and transit; everything that goes in this direction we support, although we know that these agreements will have a minimal positive impact on our situation”, he added.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)