Meloni blames Frontex for the shipwreck in Calabria in which more than 60 people died: “No communication arrived”

Italy has not received “any urgent communication from Frontex” about the boat that sank off the coast of Calabria on Sunday, killing at least 69, Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni said on Saturday, believing that “These people were unable to be saved”.

“The situation is simple in its drama: there were no urgent indications from Frontex. In addition, the route is not covered by non-governmental organizations and therefore has nothing to do with government policy,” Meloni told the Italian press in Abu Dhabi, during an official visit to the emirate, in her first comments on the matter.

The shipwreck, which is being investigated by prosecutors, happened at dawn last Sunday when a boat carrying about 180 migrants set sail from Turkey, according to survivors. sank 150 meters from the coast. So far, 69 bodies have been located, of which 15 are children, mostly Afghans, Iranians, Pakistanis and Syrians, and it is feared that the final number will exceed a hundred.

One aspect of the investigation focuses on the operations of security forces in the hours before the shipwreck and after the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) alerted them to the ship’s presence on Saturday night. Different versions of Frontex and the Italian security forces have sown doubts about whether the tragedy could have been avoided and the new leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, called for the resignation of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who is very close to far-right Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister.

“The opposition demands the resignation of another minister every day. It’s not news anymore”said far-right Meloni, harshly criticized for not going to the funeral chapel for the victims in Crotone, where alongside opposition leader Schlein, the only state authority was President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.

In this sense, Meloni announced that “consideration of holding the next session of the Council of Ministers in Čutra”, the town closest to the shipwreck, after declaring that he had not read the open letter addressed to him by the mayor of Crotone, Vincenzo Voce, in which he assures: “The government was missing, you are missing president.” «We have been waiting for a week, the community of Croton, struck by immense pain, has been waiting for your message, your phone call, your gesture.

During this week, the inhabitants of Crotone were saddened by the victims of a terrible tragedy,” writes Voce and adds that “If you don’t feel you can bring your closeness as prime minister, come to Crotone and bring it as a mother.” Meloni insisted that what happened with the shipwreck “has nothing to do with the government’s measures against non-governmental organizations”, in reference to a regulation approved by his government that complicates the operation of aid ships helping people in the central Mediterranean.

“We are working to stop illegal flows, we continued to rescue all people. That’s history. I really don’t think there are issues where you should go overboard to hit whoever you consider your opponent,” he concluded.