Mantovano: “We have to change the Bossi-Fini line”
“There is toughness, but it is only against smugglers”, “everything else serves to facilitate legal entry. Our position is and remains balanced”. Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovanoin an interview with The print on the sidelines of an event in the Chamber, he rejects the accusation that the text passed in Cutro is against migrants and suggests that there will be a new intervention: “An urgent decree is one thing, it is another to revise the entire immigration law which has now had its day, it has been patched up I don’t know how many times, there are articles bis, ter, quater”. The reference is to the Bossi-Fini law: “By now it has become a harlequin law. Something new will have to be done, but calmly and in an articulated way”.
“There was no split – he says in relation to the decree – but, as it should be and logically, a multi-voiced discussion. The decree passed unanimously”. The hypothesis of having the Navy intervene, then exited from the text? “No mystery – he replies -. The proposal was there, put forward by the Defence. But then, just by reasoning, we realized that it would have been a spot, non-organic intervention, and that in such a delicate matter one must proceed with caution in moving the skills here or there. So we postponed the reflection to a later moment”. He specifies that “the special permit has not been canceled. When you have the texts, you will be able to verify. The special protection for those fleeing political, religious, sexual persecution remains. On the other hand, international standards provide for it. Only one particular case linked to the families”.
When asked if the Salvini line has passed, Mantovano replies curtly “no”, as reported by Il Messaggero: “It was a collegial decree, as Salvini himself acknowledged”. And on the role of Frontex, “Frontex should do everywhere, not just in the vicinity of Italy”. “Some boats – he says – set sail from Turkey and cross the waters of Greece, Cyprus, Malta. But the reports are sent only when they approach Italy. Perhaps some mechanisms need to be reviewed”.