The Foreign Secretary is open to coordination with other European countries following the attempted attack on Leipzig Airport. Candiani (Lega): “We can get by just fine without it.” Italy, together with France and Spain, issues three-quarters of Schengen visas to Russians: from 64,000 to 161,000 in four years

Italy and Spain are publicly at loggerheads for the sake of domestic political expediency, but they are not denouncing Rabat’s hybrid attack so as not to upset the regimes that are blackmailing Europe by controlling migration flows

According to the Foreign Secretary, the reason for extending the suspension of the agreement is to prevent terrorism and combat irregular immigration.

Following Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Finland and Sweden have also announced their intention to send ‘Dublin cases’ back to Italy. And a ruling by the European Court of Justice has deprived Rome of the means to refuse them. Amidst the crisis in Ceuta and the suspension of Schengen, the new asylum pact is facing its first serious test. And it is failing it

 “Fewer deportations than under Conte and Renzi. At last, even the left, hailing the deportations to Ceuta, endorses the concept of remigration,” says the general. “Regularisation is a disaster; Europe and Italy must change course. Are we to side with this right-wing government? If anything, they will have to agree with us.”

“The centre-left has become something else entirely: if you were to take the Olive Tree coalition’s 1996 manifesto, today it would seem like blasphemy to a broad coalition influenced by the extremes. The same applies to the right: the former general is incompatible with liberal values,” says the MP. “In Ceuta, we are witnessing Morocco’s blackmail in action.”

Amid the chaos in Spain (60,000 arrivals, 48,000 already returned), two forms of demagoguery are emerging: the self-defeating stance of closure (‘what if this happened to us?’), and the folly of denial (‘problems aren’t solved: they’re denied’). But there is a solution: more Europe

“What happened in Ceuta is clearly an organised exodus aimed at putting pressure on the government in Madrid,” says the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and magistrate. On the subject of security: “On an issue such as this, it would be good if the majority and the opposition could find some common ground.”

The former minister has spoken out against the “crisis responses” of the government and the EU. “Suspending the treaty could lead to outcomes contrary to those hoped for. What is needed now is a genuine pact between the EU and Africa, one that does not leave us vulnerable to blackmail by individual countries and criminal organisations, as happened in Morocco”