So Minister Michael Farrugia went to a European Council meeting of ministers of the interior held in Innsbruck, Austria.
The Department of Information (DOI) said that Minister Farrugia held bilateral discussions with the Portuguese Minister for Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita, the Cyprus Minister of the Interior Constantinos Petrides, The Netherlands Minister for Migration Mark Harbers, and the Spanish Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gomez. Minister Farrugia also held meetings with EASO Executive Director Jamil Addou and with Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.
No mention of Italian deputy minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini at all.
This was picked up by our sister daily paper.
The DOI did not say why the two ministers who had been sparring on Twitter over the past weeks and who were facing each other across the Council table did not meet.
Did either of them, or both of them, run out of time? Did Salvini rebuff Farrugia’s offer of a meeting? Was there some sort of impediment, such as, for instance, linguistic or the absence of key aides? Or was Farrugia under orders from Castille not to tackle Salvini and to let the eventual negotiations be handled by Castille with Prime Minister Conte?
Salvini is a notoriously difficult fish to catch. He reserves his fiery language to Tweets or in rushed comments to the media, or inflammatory speeches at Lega meetings. In these short weeks he has been in power, he has risked institutional clashes with the other party in government – 5 Stars – and even with Italian President Sergio Mattarella himself.
In the end, he has had to bow down to superior logic. He has had to see boatloads of refugees dock in Italian ports notwithstanding his repeated assertions that Italian ports were closed to ships carrying refugees.
For a man with such fiery language and spirit such as Salvini, this was humiliation writ large. But as much as the refugee ships keep coming in, so too Salvini keeps going round mouthing incendiary words and using vituperative language against Malta. Our country is Salvini’s favourite target to kick around and blame.
So at Innsbruck, there was the very real danger of Salvini mounting a public tirade against hapless Michael Farrugia, whose ability at repartee is infinitely inferior to that of the Italian minister.
Even in the past 48 hours, when news started coming in about 450 refugees huddled in a wooden two-tiered fishing boat, Salvini went on a rampage. He first condemned Malta for not taking them in (it was later pointed out to him by Malta that the boat had indeed passed through Malta’s SAR area after leaving the Libyan one but it was actually nearer Lampedusa than Malta and the boat itself was heading towards Italy).
The migrants were transferred to two ships yesterday and seemed heading for Trapani but Salvini still insisted that they must not be allowed to land in Italy.
Some of Salvini’s fiery comments could be taken as supporting pushbacks but Italy tried this tactic only once in the past, when Roberto Maroni did that in Berlusconi’s time and Italy was subsequently condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.
So the only outcome that I could see in Malta was an impeccably suited Minister Farrugia joining the other VIPs in St John’s for the Mass celebrated during Police Week. Presumably, he and Salvini, who flaunts his religion especially at election times, are children of the same God, as are the refugees who are still on the high seas not knowing when they will make land.
Farrugia is on a par with his creation Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar who, in an interview he gave this week to a One journalist, outlined the ‘successes’ registered by the police and said the search for Daphne’s killer goes on apace.
But, to get back to Salvini, I would like to repost a comment on our portal by a person who signed as ML, who seems quite knowledgeable, and who wrote: “Note to Farrugia: “Despite NO boats coming to Malta in 2015-2017 Malta has had 1600-1700 asylum seekers each year which means Italy has PUSHED over 5000+ asylum seekers to Malta in 2015-2017 through Malta-Italy ferry and through the Malta airport.
“Farrugia should demand that Italy-Malta ferry company starts checking ID and right of travel BEFORE boarding people in Italy and that airlines flying from Italy to Malta start checking ID and right of travel BEFORE boarding people in Italy.
“Has Farrugia asked whether Italy will TAKE BACK these 5000+ asylum seekers it has PUSHED to Malta and has Farrugia demanded that Italy MUST start registering EVERY asylum seeker instead of trying to push them to elsewhere in Europe?
“According to Dublin agreement Malta could have returned EVERYONE that came through Italy to Malta back to Italy if they were either registered in Italy or if there was PROOF that they came to Malta through Italy such as travelling the ferry from Italy or flying to Malta or having Italian SIM card or having records in their phone about Italy etc.
“Why has this NOT been done Mr Farrugia?”
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