Red line of the European left before the plans of Ursula von der Leyen to follow in the footsteps of Italy and bet on the return centers of migrants in third countries. From the socialists to the Greens and The Left, they have warned that they will not support this drift. The president of the European socialist group, Iratxe Garcíawas very clear when asked by this media about her position on these deportation centers: “Contrary“.
It is not trivial. All the sources consulted from the parties with a presence in the European Parliament to the left of the socialists agree that it is essential that the group led by García remains firm in its position to do not falter as a block. The truth is that the socialist was drastic in the debate in the European Parliament. “Mrs Von der Leyen must abandon her inhuman and illegal proposal to create deportation centers in third countries,” he stated.
The re-elected president of the European Commission managed to stay in office this summer thanks to the support, among others, of the socialists and some Greensbut also from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), where far-right formations such as Brothers of Italyof Giorgia Melonior the Polishs Law and Justice. It is a mix that predicted turbulence.
However, the German, from the political family of European Popular Group (GPP), promised when it was confirmed that he would continue as head of the Commission that he would not allow himself to be carried away “by extremes.” They are words that, as emphasized Galan StarMEP of The Left for Sumar, have been very lackluster in light of the intentions in terms of migration that Brussels has expressed.
In any case, the pressure that the progressive sector of the European Parliament is projecting has not translated into a change of course on the part of the Commission. The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dallihas insisted this week that ways to create these deportation centers in third countries will continue to be explored. Von der Leyen herself suggested that the model proposed by Meloni could be inspiring.
What exactly does the construction and use of these types of centers consist of? At the European level they are not yet a reality and the progressive forces will try to stop any progress in that direction, but what Meloni’s Italy is already doing is deport migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Albania thanks to an agreement between both countries that has required a great legal engineering by the far-right to be able to put it into practice. It is a way of leaving the “problem” – in the terms used by the extreme right – beyond the borders of the EU.
Despite this, the Italian Justice ordered the return of some of the migrants who had already been deported to Albania. He Court of Rome considered that the conditions that the pact itself marks as necessary for Albania to be considered a safe country for deportees were not met. Meloni, far from giving up, has assured that he will push to consolidate the agreement and, therefore, the deportations.
Von der Leyen, pushed by the demands of the extreme right, wants to find a similar solution for the entire European Union in which the problems are worsening. anti-immigration speeches and the idea of understanding Europe as a fortress to protect is spreading.
A successful far-right framework
The voices consulted by Public Among the Spanish left with a presence in the European Parliament, they recognize that the extreme right has achieved that the immigration debate ―and more specifically, on the way in which the European Union has to manage the phenomenon of immigration― is developed in a framework composed of the fearthe link between migrants and delinquency or threats of cultural pollution.
It is a playing field that progressive formations completely reject and, furthermore, they know that a defensive strategy based on denying the theories and proclamations of the extreme right in this field places them at a disadvantage. “One of the challenges we have is precisely that: to go changing the terms of the discussion about migrations and also about other topics,” he points out in conversation with this medium. Vicent MarzàMEP for Compromís attached to the Greens who participated in the June 9 elections on the Sumar lists.
Most of the public interventions of Irene MonteroMEP for Podemos in The Left. On more than one occasion, he has insisted that the real security problem in Europe is not migrants, but the racists. The board on which progressives want the game to be played is not that of fear, “but that of human rights“He points out, in this case, Galan Starwho was head of Sumar’s list in the June 9 elections and, in addition, president of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR) for 13 years (from 2011 to 2024).
Although there is a closing of ranks between the socialists and the formations to their left regarding the rejection of deportation centers in third countries and also share the need for far-right parties not to decide the terms of the debate, there is more distance in what the dominant discourse and strategy should be. Socialists base many of their arguments on need criteria of migration in economic terms in an increasingly depopulated Europe. It is a discourse that the parties to the left call it utilitarian.
However, the immigration debate – which is, along with the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine (and the one derived from Lebanon), the one that attracts the most attention in Strasbourg and Brussels – has entered a new phase with the turn of Von der Leyen to positions close to the far-right Meloni through the proposal for deportation centers. The launch of the Gjader (Albania) after the agreement between Albania and Italy has precipitated things and forced all groups to mark position.
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