The ‘vultures’ who support Sánchez. Even mass repatriations have become acceptable, if the left carries them out

“Solidarity is optional,” Pedro Sánchez had immediately hissed on social media, revealing a passive-aggressive attitude that we had, in any case, already suspected him of. With the humanitarian disaster in Ceuta unfolding (however one might analyse or choose to explain it, 88 confirmed drownings constitute a humanitarian disaster), it would have been better to remain silent. Why solidarity should be compulsory is unclear, even amongst European Union member states; but the interior ministers of the 27 member states will clarify this today. It is not so much about the holidays that Pedro Sánchez is perfectly free to take whilst the crisis is ongoing, nor about the playlists he is perfectly free to compile. But because, however you look at it, the managerial and political responsibility for what has happened cannot be shifted onto the shoulders of other countries. However, what casts doubt on Mediterranean solidarity is above all another factor – typically endogenous – namely the rhetorical hypocrisy that has been mounting for days in our country, with the aim of applauding the Spanish government whilst seeking to cast the Italian government in a negative light. Something doesn’t add up – or rather, it adds up all too well.

The noble father of this new brand of Spanish hypocrisy, Gustavo Zagrebelsky, has written an open letter to Meloni: “Dear Giorgia, whilst the dead are being counted in Ceuta, instead of mourning them, you are staging a rally on top of them”. There is no evidence that Sánchez has shed rivers of tears, and on the subject of the solidarity he has been calling for, his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has gone even beyond the bounds of decency: “Rome would like to resolve the situation in Lampedusa as it did in Ceuta.” He was referring to the great success of having sent back, within twenty-four hours, several tens of thousands of desperate people who had swum ashore. Hats off to them. According to EFE, there are around 73,500 ‘remigrants’ in total. In the waters off Ceuta, update after update, more people have drowned than at Cutro, the infamous ‘state massacre’.

We did not see the Civil Guard handling the emergency any better. But we did see them deploying containment barriers in the water to block further illegal entries by sea. Would Piantedosi have done the same? When the government organised a Council of Ministers meeting at the site of the tragedy, it was met with banners reading ‘Cutro: a state-sanctioned massacre’. What would have happened, in media and political terms, if those swallowed up by the sea had been off the Sicilian coast? And if the ‘right-wing’ government had repatriated thousands of destitute people without so much ado? Instead, a host of politicians and keyboard warriors have rushed to applaud Sánchez. ‘Italy is unforgivable’ reads a front-page headline in La Repubblica, quoting the Spanish Prime Minister. People are free to express their political opinions, but perhaps a post by Antonio Polito is closer to the facts: ‘On Ceuta, Sánchez has managed to isolate Meloni and 21 other foreign prime ministers’. Without so much as a Zagreb-style tear for those who drowned, here come the compliments for the handling of repatriations, which have suddenly become good and just. From Elly Schlein, “In 48 hours, Sánchez repatriated more irregular migrants than Meloni has in four years”, to posts which, out of decency, we shall leave anonymous: “50,000 repatriations in a single day. The #Meloni government should learn from Sánchez”; “The right is desperate because Sánchez has repatriated 50,000 Moroccans in 24 hours”. Right up to vulgar anti-Semitism: “The number of victims of the horse’s head that Maga and Likud placed in Sánchez’s bed has risen to 87”.

A truly incredible outpouring of profiteering and hypocrisy. Yesterday, Concita De Gregorio wrote an article in La Repubblica entitled “Gli sciacalli di Ceuta che lucrano sulla paura”, attributing moral blame to the fears of an (elderly) Italian woman from the petty bourgeoisie who is terrified of those who swim ashore. But the real vultures of Ceuta are those who sing the praises of Sánchez, and his not exactly successful humanitarian rescue operation – Schengen or not, and setting aside the Moroccan government’s culpability and premeditation – and his spectacular repatriation (after all, four years ago he had deployed the army). Schlein said: “Just imagine if other European countries had done the same to us when, in the first year of Meloni’s government, 157,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy.” They did, France in particular. But we stand in solidarity.