A newly released survey has revealed that slightly under two-thirds of Italians back Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s law and order policies that seek to drastically reduce the number of illegal migrants entering Italy.
Figures obtained from the survey, carried out by the Italian social and market research firm Eumetra, indicated that 63% of the Italian population endorse Meloni’s center-Right coalition government’s hardline position on illegal immigration, including preventing far-Left, mass migration NGO ships from disembarking unknown foreign nationals on Italian soil, the Milan-based newspaper Il Giornale reports.
When asked whether they agree with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi’s decision to allow only women and minors to disembark from NGO ships—most of which are operated by left-liberal German organizations—nearly two-thirds of the survey’s participants expressed support for the policy.
Among voters of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, 86% support the interior ministry’s line on the immigration issue, while 94% of Fratelli d’Italia supporters feel the same way. Perhaps, more interesting, however, is the fact that only 64% of Matteo Salvini’s Lega voters support the policy, with some suggesting that this could be due to the fact they view the line of action as more “Melonian” than “Salvinian.”
As The European Conservative previously reported:
Under Italy’s new law, foreign NGO boats that rescue migrants at sea should first seek assistance from the country under which flag they sail. Meloni’s reigning coalition believes that rescues by NGOs in Mediterranean waters encourage human smuggling, a conviction that has in part informed its new policy—designed to dissuade those involved in these activities.
In August, just weeks before her historic victory in Italy’s national elections, Giorgia Meloni called for a naval blockade off the North African coast to stem the flow of illegal migrants making the trans-Mediterranean journey to southern Europe.
“The best solution to the problem of migration is to prevent the departures instead of arrivals,” Meloni said, proposing that humanitarian facilities throughout North Africa’s migration hotspots should be established to assist migrants.
Days ago, Italian Rear Admiral Nicola De Felice expressed support for Meloni’s proposed naval blockade in the Mediterranean to stop the ever-thickening torrent of illegal migration, and to disrupt human trafficking operations.
The EU-funded website InfoMigrants reported last month that NGO ships, referred to by some as “migrant taxis,” have brought 10,000 foreign nationals, most of whom originated in North Africa, to European soil this year, with the vast majority landing in Italy. The figure represents 14% of the total number of foreign nationals who made their way to Italy by boat this year, which according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, amounts to more than 71,000.
