Italy’s populists want new EU migration policy
ROME — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte declared Europe’s immigration policy a “failure” and demanded it be renegotiated as he outlined on Tuesday a heavy-spending domestic policy agenda for the populist “government of change.”
In his first policy address ahead of parliamentary confidence votes, Conte also warned that the government planned to renegotiate fiscal policy with the European Union, though he assured partners that leaving the common euro currency “is not up for discussion” and never was.
Conte, a political unknown who until last week was teaching law classes, readily acknowledged that the alliance government of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and right-wing League marks a radical shift from the Italian status quo.
“If ‘populism’ is the attitude of leaders to listen to the people ... and if ‘anti-system’ means introducing a new system that removes the old privileges of power, then this government deserves both these descriptions,” said the premier, who was sworn into his first political office Friday.
Conte was interrupted nearly three dozen times during his 75-minute speech to the Italian Senate ahead of a confidence vote later Tuesday. He is to deliver a similar address Wednesday before
Parliament’s lower Chamber of Deputies.
Between them, the 5-Stars and League have a slight parliamentary majority that is expected to give the government the votes it needs, giving the go-ahead to Western Europe’s first populist government after three months of political and financial turmoil.
Conte responded to concerns about the xenophobic League’s rhetoric, insisting that Italy “isn’t racist” and accepts its responsibilities to welcome legitimate refugees. But he said the rest of the EU must take on a greater burden of accepting refugees, as well as negotiating with migrants’ home countries and helping send back those who don’t qualify for asylum.
“It’s obvious to everyone that the way migrant flows have been managed has been a failure,” he
said. “We will put an end to the business of immigration that grew disproportionately under the cloak of a pretend solidarity.”
He also sought to assuage fears in Europe about his budget-busting fiscal program, but he offered no details on financing and limited his comments to responding to concerns that Italy at some point might leave the eurozone.
“Do we have to repeat it? Leaving the euro was never up for discussion. It is not up for discussion,” he said. “The issue is another: Is it legitimate or not for a government of a country to renegotiate economic policy?”
Conte also said Italy was a “convinced” member of NATO and reaffirmed its “traditionally privileged” alliance with the United States.
But he called for the lifting of EU sanctions on Russia, citing
Moscow’s strategic role internationally and the risk that sanctions will crush Russian civil society.
Conte gave his speech standing between his two political masters: 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini. The two gave up their own ambitions to be premier and agreed to find a compromise candidate to head a previously unthinkable alliance.
As expected, the new premier’s address drew heavily from the 5-Star-League’s 57-page policy agenda, the “Contract for the Government of Change,” repeating its call for a two-tiered flat tax, a basic income for poor Italians and a “dignified” minimum wage. Conte gave no specifics on how the expensive programs would be financed, other than by calling for new criminal penalties for flagrant tax scofflaws.
The 5-Star-League’s financial platform has worried economists and EU policy-makers who warn it will increase Italy’s debt burden, already Europe’s heaviest after Greece.
Conte said Italy was committed to reducing its public debt but that it wouldn’t use austerity measures. The government plans to grow the economy through environmentally sustainable development, reducing the bureaucracy and a more businessfriendly administrative climate for the small and medium-sized companies that are the backbone of the economy, he said.