Italian Hard-Left Leader Rejects “Hungarian Model”

Just as Italy is facing an immigration crisis not seen since 2015, the leader of the Italian left wants to further incentivize mass immigration. Elly Schlein is rallying her party around the idea of reforming the Dublin Agreement, but warns against a Hungarian approach towards immigration and border protection.

An article published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica describes the current immigration debate in Italy. The discussion circles around the so called “reform” of the Dublin Regulation of 2013, which states that “Any Member State shall retain the right to send an applicant to a safe third country, subject to the rules and safe guards laid down in Directive.” Although the current legal interpretation does not mandate genuine refugees to submit an asylum application in the first safe country, not doing so effectively turns them into migrants instead of individuals fleeing persecution.

Instead, Schlein and her party advocate for a system of distribution of new arrivals among all EU Member States, an idea that is asupported by the European Parliament and Commission in the form of “migrant quotas,” a proposal that effectively ran aground at the joint opposition from the Visegrad 4 countries.

Apart from this, she also warned against measures preventing migrants entering Europe, such as physical barriers. As she put it, the European Parliament is now in full agreement with the reform of the Italian asylum system. She complained about the current government of Giorgia Meloni that is actively seeking ways to stem to flow of illegal migrants to the country, because as she put it: “…it breaks down the broad acceptance (of migrants) and wants to introduce the Hungarian model in Italy, which we will strongly oppose.”

As we have reported earlier, the Central Mediterranean migration route, which mainly involves Italy, saw a 305% increase in the number of irregular border crossings in January, February, and March, with 27,651 attempts compared to the same months last year. In March, the number of sightings on this route increased almost ninefold compared to March last year, to around 13,000.

Featured Photo: Facebook Elly Schlein