The ‘Mattei Plan’ for Africa, the ambitious project with which the government intends to transform Italy into an energy hub and relaunch cooperation between Italy and the African continent, has a deadline. The Italy-Africa intergovernmental summit scheduled for October will be “the right opportunity to definitively present our Mattei Plan, in which we are collaborating with African countries”, announced Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of her institutional mission in Ethiopia. To the city where the ‘Monumento al Meyazia 27’ stands, which celebrates Ethiopia’s liberation from Italian occupation, the Prime Minister arrives with the aim of strengthening relations with a country that Italy considers “crucial” for the stability of the entire the Horn of Africa region, especially with regard to the management of the migratory phenomenon and the fight against trafficking in human beings. Ethiopia, where 823,000 refugees and 4.2 million displaced people currently live, is indeed among the countries that have benefited from the 2022 flow decree and represents a crossroads for the flows that cross the eastern borders of Africa towards Sudan until to Libya.
Meloni – the first head of a Western government to stop in Ethiopia since the end of hostilities in Tigray – is welcomed at the airport by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali: it is the third time that the two leaders have seen each other since Meloni landed in Chigi Palace. Speaking to the press, the prime minister recalled “the excellent friendship” with the Ethiopian prime minister and relaunched Italy’s ambitions on the continent: “There is an Italian role in Africa, globally, and in the Horn of Africa, which for us it is crucial and sensitive to several issues”, articulated the leader of Fratelli d’Italia, recalling that “Ethiopia is a hub for many things. It is a country whose stability is essential for the Horn of Africa region. It is a country with the Italy has important historical relations, which I intend to strengthen”. Italy’s support for Ethiopia, guaranteed the prime minister, will be felt with investments in various sectors, starting with infrastructure. But also with financial support: “We are dealing with it , as we are doing, in a very different situation, with Tunisia”, Meloni also underlined, reiterating Italy’s commitment to “unlock loans” for the North African country.
Meloni is scheduled to have a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the President of Somalia, as well as a visit to the Italian cultural institute Galileo Galilei, the largest Italian school abroad with around 900 students. And the issue of migrants remains central both domestically and internationally. In the Senate, in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the majority presented a sub-amendment to the Cutro decree to cancel the special protection, thus fulfilling the requests of the League. “The center-right majority is united to achieve the goal of canceling the so-called special protection, bringing discipline into line with the rest of Europe,” say Meloni’s party sources. “The purpose of the amendment presented to dl Cutro – explain the Fdi’s own sources to Andkronos – is, in fact, to restrict the scope of the temporary authorization, whose use for various reasons has expanded dramatically, creating an indiscriminate safeguard for illegal immigrants” . And while in L’Aquila the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi agrees with the CEI stating that “there is no alarm” for migrants and that the state of emergency declared by the government is only a technical tool, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Development Human rights Volker Turk arrives in Italy with an appeal to abandon measures that limit rescues at sea.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
