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Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
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Andreea Alexandru / dpa
The mayor's words are dramatic: "I appeal to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The government should not leave us alone in dealing with this great tragedy.
Help us, we won't get any further like this,” Filippo Mannino, Mayor of Lampedus, is quoted as saying in the Italian and Austrian media.
Eight refugees were found dead on a ship rescued by the Italian Coast Guard off the coast of Lampedusa.
According to a Reuters report, prosecutors said on Friday that two other people were missing.
About 40 refugees were rescued and brought to the main port of Lampedusa.
According to the information, the Italian authorities escorted three other ships with a total of 156 people to Lampedusa.
In total, 105,140 refugees reached Italy by sea in 2022 - in 2021 this was 67,477, in 2020 it was 34,154.
The accident happened shortly before Melonis' first visit to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Friday afternoon.
In the run-up, politicians from the traffic light coalition criticized Italy's head of government and her refugee policy.
»We must not accept that people become victims of Italian politics«
The chairman of the German-Italian parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Axel Schäfer (SPD), accused Meloni in the Bayern media group of "also accepting the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean".
"We have to make refugee policy in Europe more solidary and fairer," demanded the SPD politician.
"We must not accept that people become victims of Italian politics."
Schäfer warned against understanding Meloni's reluctance in the first 100 days of her term as a purification.
»She is and will remain a post-fascist.«
Nobody should be fooled by Meloni's recent reserved appearance, said the chairman of the European Committee in the Bundestag, Anton Hofreiter (Greens), the newspapers of the Funke media group.
"Meloni is still the representative of a post-fascist party that takes extreme right-wing positions."
The Italian head of government is to be received with military honors in the Federal Chancellery.
According to a government spokeswoman, the following conversation with Scholz focused on “bilateral, European and international issues”.
sol/AFP/Reuters
