Consequences of the migration debate in Europe?
In the wake of the Ceuta crisis, migration policy is once again at the top of the agenda among Europe's political leaders. The prime ministers of Italy and Denmark, Giorgia Meloni and Mette Frederiksen, have now issued a joint statement warning of the consequences of uncontrolled migration and calling for a tougher stance. At the same time, however, Europe's media point to new rifts over how to deal with migrants.
A strange alliance
Meloni and Frederiksen are making an unusual show of solidarity across political camps, La Stampa comments:
“The move by this unlikely pair represents an unprecedented choice on the European stage, where the handling of migration has always been the chasm dividing the right and the left. ... Never before has a conservative politician refrained from attacking the 'illegal immigrant-friendly left', nor has a progressive laid down their arms against the 'xenophobic right' in order to explore the possibility of a rapprochement. Perhaps it's merely opportunism, a tactic for extricating themselves from the mess following the Ceuta incident. But whatever it is, turmoil in both camps is guaranteed.”
Values are of secondary importance
There is a lack of consensus among Europe's governments on migration policy, writes political scientist Bernardo Ivo Cruz in Diário de Notícias:
“Many governments fear that any balanced position could be exploited by populist parties for electoral gain. Some are adopting a harsher tone while others avoid the issue altogether. Yet populism and its simplistic solutions don't explain everything. Profound differences of opinion remain among the member states regarding the division of responsibilities, return mechanisms, integration models and the funding of the common migration policy. The result is a debate dominated by a sense of urgency and fear rather than values or rationality.”
Capitalising on the Asylum Pact
The German government has announced plans for returns of migrants from Italy to Greece under the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact. Avvenire sees this as political exploitation of asylum seekers:
“If they travel on [from the country of arrival], the authorities have the power to send them back – in a harrowing game of snakes and ladders. The new Pact on Migration and Asylum adopted in 2024, for which the Meloni government claims intellectual authorship, tightened this principle. Now Chancellor Merz, too – under pressure from the far-right AfD and in the run-up to elections – is aiming to capitalise on this politically.”
Europe's hypocrisy
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung criticises the silence surrounding Spain's treatment of migrants in Ceuta:
“People are clearly delighted with Sánchez's efficiency – one shudders to think of the chaos that would have ensued in Ceuta had he followed Merkel's example and welcomed the migrants. Some non-governmental organisations rightly point out that this probably constituted a breach of EU and international law. But these voices are barely heard in the media. The success of the pushbacks is being hushed up because they are not permitted under official European migration policy. This is hypocritical and wrong because it obscures the view of potential solutions to the migration crisis.”