Germany is not following the Ceuta effect

Is German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government hostile towards Italy? Judging by the comments from Giorgia Meloni’s government, it would appear so, and this can be inferred from the decision announced by Berlin’s Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt, to send back ‘Dublin cases’ – a term used to refer to those foreign nationals who, having landed on European shores – in Italy, Spain or Greece – have applied for asylum in a European country other than the one in which they first arrived. Germany has stated that it will apply the Dublin Regulation to the letter: asylum must be sought in the country of arrival, not in the one where one hopes to make a new life. It is true that Italy, with its nearly 8,000 kilometres of coastline, is far more exposed to migration flows than Germany, which borders eight EU countries and Switzerland. It is also true that, in the past, northern Europe has left it to the south to deal with Libya or Turkey: however, the German announcement is not linked to Ceuta but stems from an agreement that Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi reached with his counterpart Dobrindt following the new Pact on Migration and Asylum.

An agreement overseen by the EU and due to be renegotiated in October. So this is certainly not a betrayal, but rather the implementation of agreements; it is just that, during the election campaign, Italy decided to start weaving a narrative of political betrayal – including on Germany’s part – and to try to focus all attention on migrants, as it did following the Spanish disaster in Ceuta, where the initial reaction was a complete rejection of European solidarity, the start of disputes with Pedro Sánchez and retaliatory measures against Spain. There is no point in continuing to trumpet that migration is a problem when it is not. There is no point in writing letters and social media posts alongside the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen when what one is trying to achieve is not a European solution to a Community issue, but the search for an enemy with whom to wage an election campaign.