The populist Italian coalition government has announced they will not be signing the controversial UN global migration pact and that the matter will be voted on in parliament instead.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini announced, “the Italian government will not sign anything and will not go to Marrakesh, it must be sent to the chamber to discuss it. The Italian government will make parliament choose,” Il Giornale reports.
The statement was backed up by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte who added, “We, therefore, consider it appropriate to put the debate to parliament and to put the definitive choices back on the outcome of this discussion, as was decided by Switzerland. In Marrakesh, the Government will not participate, reserving the right to adhere or not to the document only when parliament has pronounced itself.”
The populist-conservative Brothers of Italy, which is a traditional ally of Salvini’s League despite not being in the ruling coalition, have also pushed for Italy to renounce the pact but say they fear a parliamentary vote could see the Five Star Movement (M5S) and left-wing parties vote to sign it.
“Salvini says that if there is no agreement with the M5S, we will return to parliament, but if we vote freely, the M5s and the left would say yes,” Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy (FdI) said and added that she hoped the parliament would vote no to the pact.
Italy has become just the latest country to reject the UN migrant pact, which Breitbart London revealed earlier this week had been developed by the German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2016.
Italy joins the United States, Hungary, Austria, Australia, Israel and several other countries who have also rejected or signalled they would reject the pact with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó saying, “The goal of the UN Global Compact for Migration is to legalise illegal immigration, which is totally unacceptable and violates the sovereignty of member states, including that of Hungary.”