Aid to Ukraine and refugee reception: Draghi’s visit to Friuli | All updates

Update 15.48. “The way in which we have reacted to all the emergencies of the last two years has been to integrate the decisions of the government with those of the Regions and Municipalities. This institutional alliance is a heritage that we must keep »also« in welcoming 60 thousand »Ukrainian citizens« to date, and who knows how many later. It will be fundamental ». These are the words used by Prime Minister Mario Draghi during his visit to the headquarters of the Civil Protection of the Fvg in Palmanova.

Update 15.15. Prime Minister Mario Draghi witnessed the departure from the Palmanova Civil Protection hub of four trucks with medicines and medical devices destined for Ukraine.

Among the principals, also respirators and X-ray machines. The convoy, escorted by the means of the Civil Protection, is directed to Suceava in Romania, where the material, arrived from different regions and collected in Palmanova, will be deposited in a hub and collected by Ukrainian means.

Update at 14.55. A group of protesters attributable to the pacifist universe approached the headquarters of the regional civil protection of Palmanova where the Prime Minister Mario Draghi is visiting.

From outside the gates, while the premier is inside the office, some whistles are heard. The demonstrators also displayed a banner on the sides of the road that read “we call for peace and send weapons”.

The police then sent the group away from the area, inviting them to reach the city hospital area, not far from the Civil Protection headquarters, where another group is demonstrating against the Green pass. The latter display a banner with the words “Enough health dictatorship”.

On the incident came the comment of the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga: “In a situation like this, where we are welcoming people who run away from bombs, children who have lost their families, it seems absolutely inappropriate to do this type of initiatives. It is absolutely inappropriate and here we understand that even the previous protests were perhaps a little instrumental and had little to do with citizens’ rights “.

Update at 2.30pm. «The visit to Palmanova by the President of the Council of Ministers, Mario Draghi, was not preceded by any communication or invitation to the Regional Legislative Assembly, the highest representative body democratically elected by the citizens. And it is a matter of a fall in style, of an institutional rudeness of which I am sorry ».

This was stated by the president of the Regional Council, Piero Mauro Zanin, responding to a request from Franco Iacop (Pd), who at the end of the morning session had asked him if it had been decided to postpone the session of the European session scheduled for the afternoon – with the hearing of parliamentarians and MEPs – precisely because of the concomitant visit of the premier to Friuli Venezia Giulia.

“The appointment is confirmed – President Zanin specified – because unfortunately the visit of President Draghi has not been announced to the Regional Council”. “I think it was a fall in style – said the president of the Chamber – because it is always important, in an autonomous Region like ours, to deal with the assembly that has been democratically elected and which represents the entire regional community” .

According to Zanin, this is a problem of a “technocratic” approach, which goes beyond the specific episode: “The legislative and representative power – the president underlined – cannot succumb to the executive, even though it understands that the Government must manage numerous emergencies. But from these difficult moments we come out with greater democracy and involvement of the representatives elected by the citizens, not with choices of the opposite sign ».

Update at 2.20pm. Mario Draghi arrived in Palmanova. The Prime Minister “landed” at the regional headquarters of the Civil Protection 5 minutes earlier than the scheduled timetable, welcomed by the President of the Region Massimiliano Fedriga, by the vice-president Riccardo Riccardi, by the prefects of Udine and Trieste and by dozens of volunteers of the Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The Prime Minister will hold a series of institutional meetings on site, will assist at the departure of the new column of medicines from the Regions to the border between Romania and Ukraine and will visit the Palmanova facilities.

Also from here, at 4 pm he will connect with the President of the United States of America Joe Biden and with his counterparts Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Olaf Scholtz to discuss the situation in Ukraine a few days after the American president’s visit to Europe .

Update at 2pm. The Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, will be in Palmanova in the early afternoon of Monday 21 March, to visit the local Civil Protection office, together with the head of the Department Fabrizio Curcio, and the hub where the vehicles and materials are stored. departure for Ukraine. Afterwards, an operational meeting with the authorities and the meeting with the Civil Protection volunteers will be held in the same location.

«Today, with the Prime Minister we will take a picture of the state of the art on the refugee emergency. We will understand if there are corrections to be made to improve procedures ». Thus Massimiliano Fedriga, president of Friuli Venezia Giulia and of the Conference of the Regions, in view of the appointment with the premier.

“President Draghi wanted to hold this meeting in Fvg also as a testimony of the work our Civil Protection is doing on the front line to help people affected by war in a dramatic way, not only on the national territory, but also to set up camps on the border “. Fedriga added that Friuli Venezia Giulia will have to prepare for an internal reception: “We will certainly have an important passage from the border, as we are already seeing, compared to the national numbers” so “we must organize a welcome at the height”.