The Meloni-Rama Project goes up in smoke, an attack on the judiciary.

– Sara Gherardi

Thanks to a very recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, it took just one week to derail the Italian project on Albanian territory for the management of migrants. High-ranking officials of the Meloni government have lashed out against the judiciary and are attempting to circumvent EU regulations. President Mattarella has called for respect for the separation of powers in a climate of progressive erosion of the rule of law.

On October 13, the Italian government announced the opening of the migrant centers built in Albania, marking the effective start of the Meloni-Rama protocol signed in November 2023. The following day, the Navy ship Libra carried out the first operation coming up beside an Italian Coast Guard vessel carrying migrants rescued at sea. The initial screening took place aboard the Libra and led to the identification of 16 individuals of Egyptian and Bangladeshi nationality, who then faced an additional three days of navigation towards Albania.

Since then, several events indicated the failure of this operation and, presumably, of the entire Meloni project on Albanian territory. A subsequent screening at the newly constructed first reception center in the port of Shengjin revealed that, among these 16 individuals, two were minors and two others had vulnerabilities. These conditions exclude deportation to Albania, so they were immediately returned by a Guardia di Finanza vessel to the Libra, bound for Brindisi. According to the protocol, the facilities built on Albanian territory are intended exclusively for adult men rescued by the Italian Coast Guard, from countries considered safe and free of vulnerabilities. However, a recent investigation has uncovered some details of the contract awarded to the Medihospes cooperative for the management of the centers, suggesting otherwise. In the tender documents, the prefecture of Rome specifically requests activities for minors’ free time and specific services to support vulnerable persons and victims of trafficking or torture, contradicting the conditions set forth by the same protocol.

The remaining 12 men from Egypt and Bangladesh, countries of origin which are considered safe, were subjected to an accelerated procedure. On October 17, the Questura of Rome ordered their transfer to the Return Detention Center (CPR) in Gjader. However, to Meloni’s great surprise, the Rome Court did not validate the detention order. Citing a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, the court ordered that the 12 Egyptian and Bangladeshi citizens be released and brought to Italy, where they can enter the ordinary reception system while awaiting a verdict on their asylum request.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-406/22) dates back to October 4 and concerns a case raised by a Moldovan citizen against the Czech Republic. The ruling addresses the criteria for designating the list of “safe countries of origin”, whose classification leads to the direct and generalized application of the accelerated procedure. The Court ruled that “the designation of a country as a safe country of origin depends (…) on the ability to demonstrate that, in a general and uniform manner, there is never recourse to persecution as defined in Article 9 of Directive 2011/95, torture, or inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment” (paragraph 68), and “the conditions established in that annex must be met throughout the entire territory of the third country concerned for it to be designated as a safe country of origin” (paragraph 69). The competent court must therefore verify ex nunc the aforementioned prerequisites (paragraphs 90 and 91). Consequently, the direct application of the accelerated procedure cannot be based solely on the applicant’s origin from a country identified as safe.

Given the superior status of EU jurisprudence, the ruling is directly binding at the domestic level in Italy, as in every other member state of the Union. This ruling is particularly crucial in the context of the Italy-Albania protocol, as it undermines its foundations. Indeed, it challenges the very concept of a safe country, excluding the direct and generalized application of the accelerated procedure – an automatic process that has so far been employed to justify externalization to Albania.

Faced with this clear failure, the top figures in Meloni’s executive have responded by attacking the judiciary, accusing it of politicizing the decision regarding the fate of the 12 individuals deported to Albania. First among them was the Minister of Justice, Nordio, who described the ruling by the Rome Court as “abnormal,” stating: “The EU Court ruling was not disregarded by us, but misinterpreted by our judges. The designation of a ‘safe country’ should not be the prerogative of the judiciary, but an exclusively political judgment within the parameters of international law,” as, according to him, it could also have “diplomatic consequences.” In an interview with Repubblica, the Minister further stated that “if the judiciary oversteps, we must intervene.” Similarly, the President of the Senate, La Russa, commented: “In ambiguous cases, one sometimes seeks to assert one’s own worldview. This interpretation might explain the ruling on the detention in the centers in Albania.” He went on to argue that a constitutional reform is necessary to address the judiciary’s politicized decisions, in order to redefine the relationship between politics and the judiciary.

Over the past two years, we have witnessed increasingly frequent attacks on the judiciary by the government, in a climate of growing erosion of the rule of law in Italy. CILD and other civil society organizations have repeatedly denounced this worrying trend, which marks a gradual erosion of civic space and a continuous challenge to democratic principles. In reference to recent events, Patrizio Gonnella, president of Antigone, stated: “When those in power raise their voices against the judges who are handling their cases or their decisions, they are simply and deliberately seeking to disrupt the balance of powers upon which the democratic constitutional pact is founded.”

Meloni then publicly attacked her colleagues from the opposition for submitting a query to the European Commission to initiate an infringement procedure concerning the Protocol with Albania under EU law. She described this as “a simply scandalous and irresponsible behavior.” She continued: “Some Italian parties are, in fact, urging Europe to sanction their own Nation and its citizens, with the sole aim of politically targeting this Government. A disgrace that cannot go unnoticed.” Furthermore, she accused the Democratic Party of interfering with the judiciary: “Some of these judges criticized the agreement with Albania even before examining its merits. I fear that it is also telling that this judicial decision was anticipated yesterday by certain members of the Democratic Party.” Actually, since the EU Court’s ruling, many observers had anticipated this outcome regarding the centers in Albania.

In this climate of tension between the executive and the judiciary, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, intervened, urging the institutions to adhere to democratic order: “There are moments in the life of every institution when it is not possible to simply assert one’s own vision of things – deepening divisions and oppositions – but it is necessary to exercise mediation and synthesis skills.”

In response to this situation, on Monday, October 21, Meloni convened the Council of Ministers. A special decree law on safe countries was approved, giving the regulation primary legislative force. Until now, the list had been annually updated through an inter-ministerial decree – issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice – and thus held the status of secondary legislation. In the new decree law, 19 countries of origin are considered safe, compared to the previous 22 – Cameroon, Colombia, and Nigeria, for which territorial exceptions were previously allowed, were excluded. This issue had been a critical point raised by the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

During the press conference announcing the new decree law, the Minister of Justice, Nordio, once again expressed the government’s distrust in the ruling by the judges in Rome in compliance with the EU decision, stating that “it stems from a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that is very complex and detailed, and also written in French – it was probably not well understood or properly interpreted.” Nordio added: “When the list of safe countries is included in a law, the judge cannot disregard it. I tend to rule out the possibility that they could. Moreover, this ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union is not a directive and is not generally binding in an abstract sense (…).”

In this tug-of-war with the judiciary, the decree law approved by the Council of Ministers aims to alter the dynamics between domestic and EU jurisdiction, in an attempt to save the newly launched externalization project in Albania. However, it is Alfredo Mantovano, Secretary to the Council of Ministers, who sounded a note of caution: “I want to be clear: it is very likely that judges will disregard the decree as well.” Indeed, it seems to be a so-called “mini decree,” likely containing merely the list of safe countries – a strong political signal against the judiciary but of uncertain effectiveness, given the judiciary’s firm determination in upholding EU law against any detentions in Albania.

As reported by ASGI, this clash between institutions “undermines the fundamental principles and constitutional form of the democratic State, instrumentalizing and converging the ‘Albania’ issue with the clear objective of subverting the balance and functions of constitutional bodies.” In a report just published by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Council of Europe also reprimanded Italy: “the excessive criticism directed at individual judges handling migration cases threatens their independence.” These attacks have even necessitated providing security escorts for some judges. Such is the case of the Public Prosecutor in the trial currently taking place in Palermo against Minister Salvini, who is accused of kidnapping and refusing to perform official duties for events that occurred in August 2019.

In conclusion, the events triggered by the decision of the Court of Rome regarding the fate of the 12 men deported to centers in Albania are symptomatic of a broader process of erosion of the rule of law in Italy. Over the past two years, the Meloni government has initiated a process of centralization of power through the severe criminalization of entire sectors of civil society and a fierce attack on institutions, with the aim of delegitimizing dissent. We are witnessing the progressive implementation of this project through ad hoc decrees and intimidation. Civic space is being gradually eroded, and the independence of institutions is constantly threatened by political forces. The potential modification of the state system, with the introduction of a premiership (premierato), would further disrupt the balance of powers, leading to an excessive concentration of power in the hands of a single individual. For this reason, as CILD, we are opposing this drift, consistently denouncing what has been happening in Italy in recent months.