Meloni's Italy: Fortress Europe?

Giorgia Meloni won her 2022 election on promises of tougher immigration, but France 24 reports that reality has proved far more complicated. A cornerstone of her policy—a controversial migrant processing center in Albania—has run into repeated legal obstacles in Italian courts. And despite her hardline rhetoric, Meloni's government has authorized roughly half a million additional work visas for the period spanning twenty twenty-six through twenty twenty-nine, bowing to labor shortages and business pressure. The gap between campaign promises and pragmatic governance has created political space on her right. Former army general Roberto Vannacci has emerged as a prominent challenger, advocating an even stricter approach to immigration and openly calling for the remigration of migrants currently in the country.

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