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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed on Thursday that "extraordinary measures" are being studied to protect borders, including the suspension of the Schengen area with Spain, following the events in Ceuta.
"The images coming from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration represents a real threat to the security of European borders," she wrote on her social media.
- TAMBIÉN LEE: Caos en la frontera: Marruecos usa cañones de agua contra miles de personas que buscan llegar a Ceuta
She explained that she has met with the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, and that they are "convoking the relevant bodies and, after these meetings, we are prepared to intervene, including with extraordinary measures to protect our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens, such as the suspension of the Schengen area with Spain."
"We will not give an inch on illegal immigration: protecting our borders, stopping human traffickers, and ensuring effective repatriations will remain the policy of this Government," she asserted.
Previously, sources from the Executive had stated that they were "considering the suspension of the application of the Schengen Agreement."
The position in favor of this measure was backed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, who expressed his firm support for the work being carried out by the Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi.
"I am in favor of closing the Schengen area with Spain and I have full confidence in the work of Minister Piantedosi. Irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a danger to national security," Tajani stated in a post on X.
The head of Italian diplomacy directly linked this possible decision to the measures recently adopted by the Spanish Executive regarding regularization, a process he erroneously equated to the granting of Spanish citizenship.
"The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid Government's decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to more than 500,000 illegal immigrants is deeply wrong and encourages human trafficking," added Tajani, despite the fact that the regularization currently underway in Spain does not include the granting of citizenship.
¿Qué es el espacio Schengen? ¿Qué significa?
The Schengen area is a zone formed by several European countries that agreed to eliminate internal border controls between them, allowing people to travel from one member country to another without undergoing immigration checks at their common borders.
In practice, it means that a person can, for example, travel from Spain to France or Italy without having to show their passport at a land border as would happen between countries that do not belong to Schengen.
It was created with the Schengen Agreement of 1985 and began to be applied in 1995. It currently includes most European Union countries and some associated countries that do not belong to the EU.
[Publicidad]