Matteo Renzi, the "We'll hurt you!"
The warning
| ...and if you'll believe any warning, you should believe one from a Sicilian... |
"We'll give you pain!"
Mr Renzi said the EU’s response to the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants on Italy’s shores had “not been good enough”, describing a plan to redistribute less than half of those rescued this year as “almost a provocation”.
"Just you wait!"
He warned that the crisis “should not be underestimated”.
"It's gonna excruciate!"
“It is a serious issue and, let me be clear, Europe’s answers so far have not been good enough,” Mr Renzi told Corriere della Sera.
"We been able to refuse all offers, if you know whadda mean!"
“Redistributing just 24,000 people is almost a provocation,” he said. “If Europe chooses solidarity, good. If it doesn’t, we have Plan B ready. But it would first and foremost hurt Europe.”
"Youse guyz are really, really gonna not like it!"
He did not elaborate on the details of the alternative plan.
| "Merkel will sleep with da fishes!" |
Italian police pushed the migrants back to Ventimiglia, an Italian city about three miles from the border, but the protests continued late into the night. Migrants held aloft banners reading “we want freedom” and “we are not going back”, while one man had to be rescued after throwing himself in the sea.
| You wanted freedom so you floated from Libya to the EU? Now if you wanted a free meal ticket, the EU is the place. But freedom? Try floating the Florida Strait or the Rio Grande... |
Mr Renzi said he would discuss the issue with David Cameron, the prime minister, when he visits Milan Expo on Wednesday.
EU home ministers are due to discuss migration at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, ahead of a European Council summit on June 25-26.
Many migrants hope to leave Italy and claim asylum in Germany, Britain or Sweden.
However, a tightening of security at the French and Austrian borders has resulted in a bottleneck in Italy’s border towns and train stations.
Enrico Ioculano, mayor of Ventimiglia, said he had warned a month ago that the situation in the town was reaching breaking point.
“It’s not normal for France to block its borders in this way,” he said. “This is an international drama. It shouldn’t be the case that only one region is left alone to deal with the emergency.”
About 150 migrants – including babies as young as three months – slept outside Milan Central Station over the weekend as they waited to take their chance on trains leaving for France and beyond.
In Bolzano, South Tyrol, there is a daily procession of migrants who attempt to board trains for Austria.
Charity workers offering food and drink to families camped out on station platforms in Bolzano said that officials are playing a “game of ping pong”, where migrants boarding trains for Innsbruck, a city in the Austrian alps, are stopped and sent back to Italy. They then try again on a different train, often hiding in lavatories to avoid detection.
Angelino Alfano, Italy's interior minister, later said that the EU would encounter "a different Italy" if member states cannot agree on a redistribution plan.
"I will say with great clarity: Kids, either we do equal distribution of migrants in Europe, or we organise refugee camps in Libya, or we organise a serious policy of repatriation," Mr Alfano told Sky TG24. "If Europe doesn't follow through on its responsibility and solidarity, it will find a different Italy."
| Take a lesson from Australia: the liberals there whined when the government implemented its "Not Here" policy, but the number of migrants has virtually stopped. The idea of "organize camps in Libya" is about the best option. EU militaries could rotate in to provide protection, and EU third sons and daughters, those who would ordinarily join the UN, could dash about in white Land Cruisers while pretending to help. |