Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is meeting her ministers on Thursday in Cutro, where the sinking of a migrant boat killed at least 72 people at the end of February, a symbolic gesture for her far-right government accused of hindering relief efforts for migrants.
This Council of Ministers in Calabria, the very poor region forming the heel of the Italian Boot, will be the first organized outside Rome by this government and will allow Giorgia Meloni to pay tribute to the victims.
According to the media, the executive should announce both a strengthening of the sentences against the smugglers and the increase in the legal possibilities to enter Italy, in particular through humanitarian corridors.
A criticized absence
The government of Giorgia Meloni, which had made the fight against illegal immigration its hobbyhorse during the electoral campaign, has since this tragic shipwreck, which occurred on the night of February 25 to 26, under the fire of cross criticism from the opposition and civil society.
In an open letter, the mayor of Crotone, the town closest to the scene of the tragedy which hosted the burning chapel for the coffins of the victims, thus reproached the government for its absence after the tragedy.
"
The community of Crotone, struck by immense pain, waited for a message, a call, a sign from you, which did not arrive
", lamented Vincenzo Voce.
Giorgia Meloni for her part rejected any responsibility of her executive in the heavy toll of the sinking.
“
The situation is simple yet tragic: we have not received any emergency alerts from (the European Border Surveillance Agency) Frontex
,” she said.
Justice has nevertheless opened an investigation into the too late arrival of relief.
According to Frontex, one of its planes had spotted an overloaded boat on the evening of the 25th which had left Turkey for Italy the previous week and alerted the Italian authorities.
The opposition has demanded the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, taking a very hard line towards the NGOs which help migrants in distress in the central Mediterranean and author of declarations lacking, to say the least, compassion after the tragedy.
"
Lost Opportunity
"
The minister, a close friend of the leader of the Antimigrant League Matteo Salvini, defended himself before the deputies on Tuesday by reconstructing the circumstances of the tragedy step by step.
He too reaffirmed that Frontex had not reported any problem with the boat.
Matteo Piantedosi accused the four alleged smugglers, the last of whom was arrested on Wednesday in Austria, of being behind this tragedy because they spent hours near the coast, at night and in rough seas, to escape the forces. of the Italian orders, and during a perilous maneuver struck a rock at the surface of the water which caused the shipwreck.
He even claimed a positive record in terms of rescue, saying that between the government taking office at the end of October and February 27, nearly 36,500 people were rescued at sea. "A lost opportunity to answer specific
questions
" on the Italian chain of command, suspected of failures during this sinking, deplored the new leader of the Democratic Party (PD, left) Elly Schlein.