2024-10-29
7 分钟The Economist Hello, Rosie Bloor here,
co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
You're about to hear an article from the latest edition of The Economist read aloud.
We hope you enjoy it.
It dates from at least 1994 when the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was served with a subpoena
while hosting a conference in Naples on organised crime.
Berlusconi and his supporters claimed he was a victim of politically motivated jurists and repeated that claim ad nauseam over the years that followed.
On October 21,
similar accusations were heard as Giorgia Maloney's right-wing cabinet met to discuss its response to another dramatic judicial intervention.
A court in Rome had ruled that 12 migrants shipped to Albania should be taken back forthwith to Italy.
The ruling came just days after two Italian-built centres
for receiving and holding asylum seekers had been proudly unveiled at the launch of a €670 million –
that $730 million – scheme for outsourcing Italy's immigration problems.
The government's response was to pass a decree that aims to get round the ruling by designating a list of countries as safe for the return of people who are not assessed as genuine refugees,
but there is no guarantee that the courts will not overturn it.
Ms Maloney now risks a protracted wrangle with the courts like that in Britain over the previous Conservative government's plans to send migrants to Rwanda.
Whether it erodes her support remains to be seen,
but reducing the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean is crucial to her mission,
and if the centres stand empty for long,
they will become the butt of comedians' jokes and taxpayers' criticism.