Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that
neither virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric nor its opposite will
help solve the ongoing asylum-seeker crisis.
"The barbaric and boorish tone used by some (on migrants)
...like the generic 'do-good' sentiment of 'let them come, let
them come', are both solutions destined for defeat and failure,"
he told a meeting of the executive of his Democratic Party (PD).
The EU must "bear" the suffering of Africa over migrants
and other issues, he added.
"Either you shoulder the suffering of a continent like
Africa by changing Europe's point of view and putting the
Mediterranean back at the centre (of the agenda) - as the
founding fathers intuited and according to great Italian
government and cultural traditions - or there is no room for
Europe," he said.
Renzi said "the Chinese understood before us and better
than us the strategic importance of investing (in Africa)".
Italy's center-left premier pointed to Austria, where
far-right anti-immigrant rhetoric succeeded in forcing the
resignation of Social Democratic Chancellor Werner Faymann after
his candidate came a distant third to the rightwing Freedom
Party's Norbert Hofer in the first round of presidential
elections two weeks ago.
"Europe continues down the path of fear," Renzi said. "The
Brenner Pass is the most concrete example".
He added that failure to uphold the Union's key principles
"at the first sign of adversity" damages leaders' credibility.
"If you create ghosts or believe in the ghosts created by
others, those who are best at feeding fears and generating
monsters always win," Renzi said.
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