Security decree, Meloni: 'No mess, yes to the Hill, we will make ad hoc decree'

"No messing about, the rule is absolutely common sense. We are collecting some technical remarks from the Quirinale and the lawyers, and we will transform those remarks into a ad hoc measure because there was no time margin on the conversion of the decree to correct the norm'. Giorgia Meloni, who has just arrived at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, explains to reporters at a press point that a new decree correcting the previous one will remedy the remarks that rained down on the Dl Sicurezza that led to the inclusion of the novelty that provides for a reimbursement of 615 euros to the lawyer at the end of the voluntary repatriation of the migrant, paid by the Consiglio nazionale forense.

The novelty, immediately contested by the same CNF, by the National Association of Magistrates and by the opposition, was finalised yesterday in the crosshairs of the Colle (see today's Il Sole 24 Ore) and had forced the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano to go up to the Quirinale for a confrontation with President Sergio Mattarella. The Prime Minister clarified the path taken by the government: not that of an amendment that would have made a third reading in the Senate obligatory and to which the centre-left could have appealed in order to jeopardise the approval of the decree, which expires on 25 April, but a new measure after a green light from the first one, at this point only formal.

But on the merits of the idea the premier remains in favour. "It is not exactly clear to me the reason why we who recognise free legal aid to the lawyer who assists the migrant who appeals against a deportation decree, and we should not instead recognise the work of that professional who assists a migrant when he voluntarily chooses to be repatriated," she says. "It is not clear to me, it seems to me that on assisted voluntary returns we agree. It is an instrument that Europe asks us to intensify, it is an instrument that we continue to pursue, it is an instrument that we are working to strengthen'. 'At least on this,' he points out, 'I thought we were in agreement. Now I find that we no longer even agree on assisted voluntary return, but we are still going ahead with regulations that we consider to be absolutely common sense'.

The government's umpteenth mishap on the subject of security is not the only issue on which the premier is being pressed. There is the appointment game entangled by the request for a severance payment of 7.3 million advanced by Terna's outgoing CEO, Giuseppina Di Foggia, indicated for the presidency of Eni and considered close to the Meloni sisters. Here the premier does not betray the irritation already filtered yesterday, along with the pressure for Di Foggia to dissolve the rebus: "This I believe is Di Foggia's choice, obviously in the case we will evaluate our alternatives. I believe that Di Foggia has to choose between the presidency of Eni and Terna. I think the question is quite simple'. On the move of Federico Freni, a Lega Nord under-secretary for the Economy, to the chairmanship of Consob, opposed by Antonio Tajani's Azzurri, he said: 'We are not discussing it for now.

Finally asked about the war in Iran and the situation in Lebanon, Meloni cited the 'ongoing negotiations that we support', those in Islamabad between Washington and Tehran and the direct negotiations between Tel Aviv and Beirut. "On the basis of the outcome we will see the priorities we have to give ourselves". But on the mission of the Volunteers to ensure the safety of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, vital to avert an economic and energy crisis, he confirms the position already leaked on Friday from Paris: "We were among the first to propose that there should be UN coverage, but it was not possible due to the veto of Russia and China. We'll see if it can be overcome, but I think that under the conditions we set - an operation only after the ceasefire, with a very broad international support and an exclusively defensive posture - I think Italia should still be there, but it must be Parliament that expresses itself'.