Meloni, the Albania migrant centre and the hard-right mirage

What has Giorgia Meloni actually achieved on immigration?

The Italian prime minister came to power promising a tough line on irregular immigration. Her flagship project was a deportation centre in Albania, a plan to send people rescued in the Mediterranean there while their asylum claims were processed. But the Italian courts blocked the deportations because they did not comply with European law. Now Europe has endorsed this model of externalising borders — with Spain voting against — but the question remains: will it actually work?

The underlying problem is that the hard-right narrative clashes with institutional reality. Meloni, boosted by VOX's support in the last European elections, finds herself trapped between her base, which demands mass deportations, and the courts, which remind her that Brussels still sets the rules. The result is a spectacle of frustration: the supposedly globalist agenda they once denounced is now being implemented by them, with their hands tied.

From conspiracy theory to actual government
What fifteen years ago was dismissed as a conspiracy theory — that Europe would become a dumping ground for migrants — is now discussed as a matter of management. But management has run into bureaucracy. Meloni's plan was only as solid as a judge's approval. Now the European Parliament, seen by some as dominated by NGOs and their pogre laws, continues to set the agenda. The ironies of politics: those who promised to tear the system down are now negotiating within it.

In the end, what remains is the spectacle. A right that promised a firm hand and has run into the very bureaucracy it claimed to fight. Meanwhile, the debate remains tangled between accusations of betrayal and a reality that stubbornly refuses to match the slogans.