More on Georgia Meloni’s immigration policies for Italy
FRANCE 24 has a report giving some more detail on rightwing Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s surprising recent announcement on her plans to increase the numbers of workers who can come live and work legally in Italy.
She hasn’t renounced her previous plans that have been legally blocked that were meant to display her hostility toward asylum-seekers. But it does sound like she is trying to deal with the practical realities of Italy’s need for immigrants.1
This in itself doesn’t mean that she and her far-right party will give up anti-immigrant demagoguery. But it is a reminder that reality makes strong claims to be noticed.
And the reality is that Italy needs more immigrants. Like every other country in the EU.
Part of this may also be an adjustment by Meloni to the new geopolitical situation in which European countries see that there is an urgent need to establish a new continental defense arrangement that will make them able to defend themselves independent of the United States. Unlike many rightwing European parties – including one of her own coalition partners, the Lega – Meloni is not pro-Russian in her foreign policy orientation.
So this may be part of her strategy to position herself as one of the leaders of the new geopolitical arrangement taking shape in Europe.
She began her turn to a not-Russia-friendly position in 2021.2 Earlier this year, she compared Putin’s regime in Russia to the Third Reich:
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stood by earlier comments from the country’s president likening modern day Russia to Nazi Germany, adding the Kremlin had offended “the entire Italian nation” after a spokesperson blasted the comparison on Friday.
President Sergio Mattarella drew a parallel between the “wars of aggression” that prompted World War II and the “current Russian aggression against Ukraine” in a speech last week, saying “this was the project of the Third Reich in Europe.”
Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova belatedly condemned the comparison on Friday, calling Mattarella’s comments “blasphemous inventions.”
Meloni shot back the same day, standing by Mattarella’s remarks.
“The insults of the spokeswoman … offend the entire Italian nation, which the head of state represents,” Meloni said. “I express my full solidarity, as well as that of the entire government, to President Mattarella, who has always firmly condemned the aggression perpetrated against Ukraine.”3
Italian PM Meloni's government to issue 500,000 visas for non-EU workers. FRANCE 24 English YouTube channel. (Accessed: 2024-03-07).
Lanza, Raimondo (2022): Putin’s Friends? The Complex Balance Inside Italy’s Far-Right Government Coalition. IFRI. <https://www.ifri.org/en/memos/putins-friends-complex-balance-inside-italys-far-right-government-coalition#how-to-use> (Accessed: 2024-03-07).
Ewing, Giselle Ruhizzih (2025): Meloni: Russia ‘offended the entire Italian nation’ by rejecting Third Reich comparison. Politico 02/14/2025. <https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-giorgia-meloni-russia-offended-entire-nation-russia-nazi-germany-comparison/> (Accessed: 2024-03-07).