Israel’s reaction to the October 7, 2022, attacks by Hamas has gone beyond proportionality, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday.
“We did not hesitate for a single minute in supporting Israel’s right to self-defence after the horror of October 7, but at the same time we cannot remain silent now in the face of a reaction that has gone beyond the principle of proportionality, claiming too many innocent victims and even involving Christian communities,” said Meloni.
Her comments came as she spoke, for the first time as PM, at the annual flagship Rimini Meeting of influential Catholic activist group Comunione e Liberazione (CL).
Meloni once again called for a ceasefire and the release of hostages from Hamas.
Meloni called the killing of journalists in Gaza unjustifiable after five journalists were among 22 people killed by Israeli forces at a hospital in the Strip Monday.
“We condemn the unjustifiable killing of journalists, an unacceptable attack on press freedom and on all those who risk their lives to report the tragedy of war,” said Meloni in her closing speech to the CL gathering.
Some people, like the Italian opposition, write motions on Gaza while the government saves children, Meloni said.
“We reaffirm Italy’s role in this crisis. We are the leading non-Muslim country for medical evacuations from Gaza. There are those who write motions and those who save children; I am proud to be among the latter,” she said.
In other remarks, Meloni said that former PM and ex-European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi was right to warn that the European Union is heading towards irrelevance.
Draghi made the claim in a keynote speech to the CL meeting on its opening day Friday.
“The EU is increasingly condemned to geopolitical irrelevance, incapable of effectively responding to the competitiveness challenges posed by China and the US, as Mario Draghi rightly pointed out from this stage,” Meloni said.
“I agree with many of the criticisms I’ve heard regarding the EU’s current situation so much that I’ve made them so often over the years, to the point of being harshly criticised even by those who are now clamouring for them,” she added.
Meloni also said a minority of politicised judges were encroaching on the political sphere and trying to block the government’s justice reform, adding that the government would not allow judges or bureaucrats to stop its action on migrants.
This minority of politicised judges have staged “invasions of the field” and interfered in politics to hamper reform, Meloni said.
“We will move forward with justice reform despite the invasions of the field by a minority of politicised judges who are trying to replace parliament and the will of the people,” she said.
The government plans to separate the career paths of judges and prosecutors so they can no longer swap roles, aiming to boost impartiality. Magistrates argue this would bring prosecutors under political control, a contention the government rejects.
“I want to say clearly that any attempt made to prevent us from managing the phenomenon of illegal immigration will be rejected: there is no judge, politician or bureaucrat who can prevent us from enforcing Italian law, guaranteeing the safety of citizens, fighting the slave traders of the third millennium and saving human lives,” she said.
Meloni also said the government will provide young couples with affordable housing and will focus on the middle class after starting income-tax reform.
On several occasions during her speech, Meloni referenced the Meeting’s motto, taken from American poet T.S. Eliot’s Choruses to The Rock: “We will build with new bricks in the vacant spaces.”
“I’m not here to seek consensus, but to ask for help, let everyone take their own cement, their own bricks, because it’s time to build together,” she said in her concluding remarks.
Throughout her speech, Meloni used the metaphor of bricks several times.
“For those like me who have government responsibilities, building with new bricks means understanding the times we live in, laying bricks that can withstand storm winds,” she said.
ANSA