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Zelensky to meet Italian president in Rome on Saturday

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in Rome on Saturday for talks with his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, with a meeting with Pope Francis also "possible".

Published: 12 May 2023 13:15 CEST
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Rome on Saturday, May 13th. Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP

“We confirm that this meeting will take place tomorrow,” a spokesman for Italian President Sergio Mattarella said when asked about reports of a meeting with Zelensky.

It would be the first visit by Zelensky to EU and NATO member Italy since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

A Vatican source told AFP earlier that a meeting between Zelensky and Pope Francis was also “possible”, although this has not yet been confirmed.

Zelensky is also expected to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited Kyiv in February to show her country’s support for Ukraine, although her office has not confirmed this.

Despite a history of warm ties with Moscow, Italy has sent weapons and money to help Kyiv and backed Western sanctions against Russia.

READ ALSO: Italy seeks to freeze assets of Russian who fled after arrest in Milan

Meloni hosted Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Rome last month, on the occasion of a conference on how Italian businesses could help rebuild the war-torn country.

Pope Francis, who last hosted Zelensky at the Vatican in February 2020, has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and prays for the victims of the war almost every week during his general audience.

During an audience at the Vatican during his visit to Rome, Shmyhal invited the 86-year-old pontiff to Ukraine and asked for his help in returning children forcibly taken to Russia.

During a press conference returning home from Hungary a few days later, the pope confirmed he wanted to help.

“The Holy See is disposed to do it because it’s right, it’s the right thing and we should help,” the pope said.

Shmyhal also said they had discussed Zelensky’s plan for peace and “the different steps the Vatican could take” to help Kyiv achieve its goals.

READ ALSO: PM Meloni stresses Italy’s support for Ukraine on visit to Kyiv

In his press conference, Francis said he was willing to do everything necessary for peace in Ukraine, adding: “A mission is under way, but it isn’t yet public.”

However, both Kyiv and Moscow have said they know nothing about such a mission.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italian PM Meloni blasts judge who rejected ‘unconstitutional’ anti-migrant law

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday she was 'stunned' after a Sicilian judge ruled her government's latest decree was not compatible with either Italy's constitution or European law.

Published: 2 October 2023 15:18 CEST
Italian PM Meloni blasts judge who rejected 'unconstitutional' anti-migrant law

Faced with a surge in the numbers of migrants arriving on Italy’s shores, Meloni’s coalition – elected a year ago vowing to stop illegal immigration – has issued a series of decree laws, including one it says will speed up the deportation of those who would not normally qualify for asylum.

READ ALSO: Italy to detain migrants for longer as arrival numbers surge

On Friday, a judge in Catania released a detained Tunisian migrant after ruling that a September decree law, which included requiring certain migrants to pay 5,000 euros in bail to avoid transfer to a detention centre, violated EU and Italian law.

Meloni, who leads the post-Fascist Brothers of Italy party, on Monday railed against the judge on social media, writing that she was “stunned” by the ruling.

The judge “freed an illegal immigrant, already the recipient of an expulsion order, unilaterally declaring Tunisia an unsafe country… and lashing out against the measures of a democratically elected government”, she wrote.

The government has sought to fast-track deportations.

It has created an “accelerated” repatriation centre in the Sicilian city of Pozzallo to hold recently arrived migrants from Tunisia and Egypt, which both have deals with Italy that help to speed deportations.

Rome considers Tunisia a “safe country” whose citizens are not escaping war or persecution, hence rarely qualifying for international protection.

IN NUMBERS: Five graphs to understand migration to Italy

In Friday’s court’s decision, seen by AFP, the judge ruled the government decree was unlawful as it did not provide for asylum claims from migrants from safe countries to be assessed on an individual basis.

Moreover, the judge found the decree did not allow third parties, such as migrant associations, to pay the 5,000-euro bail on behalf of the migrant, as allowed under European Union law.

Italy’s Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASG), which studies case law related to migrants, said the government’s recent measures amounted to “a bad way of legislating that stems from a wrong political approach and an irrational response to an ordinary phenomenon in our society”.

“The current government, in just one year, has intervened with nine regulatory acts on immigration and asylum law, transposing into the legal system political confusion, administrative inability to deal with the migration phenomenon and authoritarian impulses worthy of the darkest historical eras,” it said.   

READ ALSO: What’s behind Italy’s soaring number of migrant arrivals?

The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, charged that Meloni, in taking on a judge, was “spurring a clash between institutions that damages the country”.

“Stop looking for an enemy every day to hide your responsibilities,” she wrote.

Italy’s hard-right government, she said, “writes blatantly unconstitutional laws and then takes it out on the judges who do their job”.

The interior ministry plans to challenge the judge’s decision, according to news agency AGI.

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