A resounding legal blow which fail the first test of their eviction model in less than 72 hours of its implementation. A plan that has already started badly, since Of the 16 immigrants transferred, four had to return to Italian soil just one day after their expulsion, two of them being minors.
The already known as ‘Meloni Model’ The idea of creating deportation centers outside the European Union (EU) appealed to a large part of the community club. At least a dozen European partners showed their support to this idea and even the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen was in favor of studying this option as a solution to the migration crisis. European support for his project to which Meloni appealed in his first reaction after the legal setback.
The Italian Prime Minister was also very critical with the judicial authorities classifying “harmful” the decision of the Court of Rome and harshly attack those responsible for this conviction. “I believe that the decision of the judges of Rome is a biased decision, This is demonstrated by the fact that some of them criticized the agreement with Albania even before its entry into force,” he denounced.
“It’s very difficult to work and try to give answers to this nation when the opposition is also one of those institutions that should help you to respond to the problems,” Meloni criticized during a press conference in Beirut, where he was visiting official to deal with escalating tensions in the Middle East.
“I hope you can tell me how this is resolvedhow is public order managed, who will pay for the billions of hostages that we will have to contribute, I hope that solutions will be found, because It’s me who has to find the solutions and I will also find a solution to this problem“, declared the far-right president, visibly upset.
Urgent government meeting
For this reason, Meloni called a meeting of its Council of Ministers for next Monday “to approve regulations that serve to overcome the obstacle” now imposed by Justice, in what is seen as a growing struggle between the executive and the judiciary in Italy.
“I think that It is not up to the judiciary to say which countries are safe, but to governments, so the government will have to clarify things better,” Meloni underlined, accusing the Rome court of exceed their powers.
Precisely, is this notion of “security” the question for which the Court of Rome ordered to bring back to Italian territory the dozen migrants held in the Gjader detention center.
This judicial body considered that this first group of expelled immigrants cannot be considered as coming from safe countriesand therefore, they should not have been transferred to Albania. A decision which builds on an earlier ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which also calls into question security in Bangladesh and Egypt, the countries of origin of those transferred.
Meloni was not the only one to react. Other members of the coalition executive such as the vice-president and leader of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, reacted to failure accusing Also judges for being “pro-immigration” and “doing left-wing politics.”
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosialready announced this Friday that the Government would appeal the judicial decision and intends to move forward with his plan outsourcing of migration management in Albania.
“Not only are we going to move forward with judicial resources, but we’re also going to move forward with these initiatives because From 2026, what Italy does in Albania will become European law“, proclaimed Piantedosi.
The head of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajaniof the conservative party Forza Italia, stressed that The Executive will continue to defend its project because “it is right to do it in harmony” with Von der Leyen.
“We are used to respecting the decisions of the judiciary, but I would like the decisions of the executive and the legislature to be respected because a democracy is based on the division of powers,” Tajani said.
