Renzi in Lampedusa: “The EU does not pretend to anything,” – The Messenger

Lampedusa is not only the border is not “periphery far from the eyes,” but it is the “spiritual heart” of Europe. Choose to be on the island, Matteo Renzi. In the hours in which the Tunis the scene is occupied by hunting responsible for the attack in Brussels, the prime minister flies on the extreme edge of Italy, “further south.” Lampedusa because, he explains, can teach the EU to “be human.” It is a warning “not to turn a blind eye in the face of major emergencies of our time.”

And it is this opportunity to reiterate that the response to the fears is not close, hide behind walls and borders. Lampedusa is preparing for the summer season, which could bring a new wave of landings from Libya. Hundreds of thousands of people – this is the alarm just launched yesterday by the French Defense Minister – are waiting to leave the Libyan coast. And in the words of citizens Renzi met in a public meeting in the town hall of the island, it emerges the concern about the news coming from Tripoli, along with an invitation to the government not to abandon the cautious line followed so far on a possible intervention: war, seen from down here, is more frightening. “But the main problem for us is not the aid to hundreds of thousands of people, because you can very well survive if you organize well,” said the mayor Giusi Nicolini, who never tires of repeating that terrorists are not people arriving crammed in boats, but men, women and children that defy the risk of living the sea to escape from poverty and wars. To Lampedusa who try to help them, then explains the mayor, “what is needed is to reduce the distance from Europe and marginality.”

To feel less alone, and in the days of the emergency, which in everyday life. In this request harks Renzi: from the football field (where the Prime Minister announced that the series B is working with the municipality to brand new field, whose work will begin in the fall)) to the needs of fishermen, from territorial continuity to the area franca that “Europe should provide” a kind of ‘refund’ for what they do the inhabitants of the island. Prime Minister assures government support. It makes a stop at the beach of rabbits and the work that symbolizes the gateway to Europe, especially to foreign tourists to remember that Lampedusa is also “one of the most beautiful places in Europe.” But it is the political message of welcome and reminder of the responsibility of the whole EU, the President of the Council tries to come back, albeit without alarmism on the upcoming season of landings. Why struggle to materialize a European emergency response migrants, as well as a reaction with common tools to the terrorist threat.

So the date chosen for the visit to Lampedusa is not accidental: March 25, 1957 was signed in Rome the Treaty establishing the European Community. Today, March 25, you have to remember, says Renzi, the values ​​that inspired the founders of the EEC. “Woe to think that is enough superficial answers: Europe’s task is to hold together our identity with our values. This Lampedusa know how to do well: here we have saved thousands of lives, here are the protagonists of Fuocammare “, the film that won the Golden Bear in Berlin and that Renzi has given to all foreign colleagues. “That’s the heart of Italy and Europe: the people of Lampedusa – says Renzi – teach everyone what should be done with great humanitarian values.”