During the G7 presidency, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is committed to dialogue with Africa. A large proportion of migrants arriving in Italy – irregularly – come from there.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's traditional end-of-year conference has this time become a start-of-the-year conference. Due to a persistent illness, Meloni, leader of the right-wing nationalist party Fratelli d'Italia, had to postpone his appointment twice. It finally happened on Thursday afternoon — and the new time seemed fitting, as Meloni gave insight into the new year, which will be more than important for her.
There is a lot at stake for Meloni in 2024, especially in terms of foreign policy, as he highlighted during the welcome: Italy faces an “extremely complex year with important dates, above all the election for the European Parliament and the Italian presidency of the G7 ”, said Meloni. At the beginning of the year, Italy assumed the presidency of the G7 group, in which the most important industrialized nations, with the USA, Japan, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and the EU as observers , come together to coordinate their common agenda.
Against the “predatory behavior” of Europe in the past
The meeting of heads of government will take place in mid-June in the Apulia region, in southern Italy. And Meloni plans to use this forum for herself: as host, she wants to further expand her image as an internationally trustworthy head of government, which she has developed since her electoral victory in September 2022. At the same time, she wants to direct the dialogue towards the issue to which it attaches greater importance internally: the migratory flows arriving in Italy from Africa and which it has proposed to reduce.
»To prevent illegal migration, it is necessary to show signs of openness to legal migration. «
Georgia Meloni,
Head of the Government of Italy
She said on Thursday that Africa would be a priority during Italy's G7 presidency. Because Europe still does not sufficiently understand the dynamics that are currently occurring on the continent, between the wealth of resources and the processes of destabilization.