Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a joint message on Monday saying Europe rests on a Christian cultural heritage that they intend to protect. The statement links that pledge to a continued push for stricter migration policy.
DR reports that Frederiksen published the joint message on her Facebook page. In it, the two leaders state that they both acknowledge Europe’s Christian cultural heritage and want to safeguard it.
The message adds an expectation directed at newcomers. People who come to Denmark and Italy and want to make Europe their home should respect European values, the two leaders write, and should not impose a way of life that the host societies do not want.
Frederiksen also addresses the political distance between herself and Meloni, who leads the nationalist right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia. She writes that the two do not agree on everything, but points to what they share. According to DR, she notes that they are the only two female heads of government in the EU, one leading a large country in the south, the other a small country in the north.
Focus on migration
The core of the message concerns immigration. The two leaders write that they will not accept uncontrolled migration to Europe, and that they have placed themselves at the head of a strict foreigner policy both at home and at the European level. They argue that illegal migration has had negative consequences, including rising crime, pressure on welfare systems and weakened public trust.
They describe it as especially serious when migrants without a right to stay commit serious crime, trade in narcotics or carry out sexual assaults. Respect for national laws must go hand in hand with respect for European values, the statement says. That applies both to illegal migrants and to the millions of foreigners living legally in their countries.
DR notes that the two leaders present no new concrete proposals in the message. Instead they point to known priorities, including the deportation of criminal foreigners and the establishment of a reception center for asylum seekers outside Europe.
The pair write that they have jointly shifted the balance on criminal foreigners in relation to the European Convention on Human Rights, so that more can be expelled. The next step, according to the statement, is implementing departure centers in third countries and other solutions outside Europe.
Background to the timing
As reported by DR, the message follows a joint letter that Frederiksen and Meloni sent to EU leaders about a week earlier. That letter came after large migrant flows from Morocco reached the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. DR’s political analyst assesses that the message from the two leaders is aimed not least at European voters.
