Editor TLN
Neither I live by law nor any hit by Laura Pausini. Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloniand the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvinihave received harsh criticism from the opposition and the Italian media after being caught in a karaoke singing Marinella’s song. The theme, by Fabrizio de Andre and which they performed at the 50th birthday party of the leader of the Lega -the Italian far-right party-, is inspired by the story of an emigrant from Calabria who is found drowned in a river.
A video of the two singing on said birthday, which was also attended by the government partner and leader of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconiwas published by the deputy director of the newspaper the dailyNicola Porro, on her social networks.
The local press and progressive politicians have criticized, not only that in a new migratory wave on the Italian coasts the Prime Minister is in a karaoke, but also the choice of the song, which resonates too much with the recent tragedy that occurred in Calabria: the arrival of a ship with 200 migrants that left Turkey and that sank in the town of Cutro. 79 people died, 33 of them minors.
I due cristiani Meloni e Salvini non vanno a Cutro a pregare davanti alle bare, ma a Cutro senza volerle vedere. And there will be some karaoke for Salvini’s birthday, singing the song of Marinella, inspired by the story of a Calabrian emigrant trovata dead in a fiume. pic.twitter.com/xvVWq84j4b
— Selvaggia Lucarelli (@stanzaselvaggia) March 11, 2023
Meloni organized last Thursday a council of ministers in Cutro, however, none of the members of the Government went to the Crotone sports palace where the coffins with the victims were placed, while the President of the Republic did attend, Sergio Mattarellaand the leader of the PD, Elly Shlein.
Added to this is the arrival of more ships from the North African coasts. In the last few hours the Italian Coast Guard has rescued more than 1,400 migrantswhile the sea continues to return bodies.
[Al menos 58 inmigrantes muertos al naufragar una embarcación en las costas del sur de Italia]
“Yesterday was a very painful day for all of us, we buried some coffins, including a little girl. I must say that I was very impressed by the images that I saw of both the government press conference and the Salvini and Meloni karaoke, which they did not want to meet with the families of the victims or pay tribute to the coffinsbut they found time to celebrate Minister Salvini’s 50th birthday,” said Matteo Lepore, mayor of Bologna, the city where the funeral of some of the victims of the Cutro shipwreck was held yesterday.
While the spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party (PD), Simona Malpezzi, declared: “They did not pay tribute to Cutro’s dead, they put on a pathetic staging, they changed institutional commitments to go sing at Salvini’s party. Inhumanity, cynicism, improvisation and cruelty: this government explained it in a few gestures. What a shame…”.
“The two Christians Meloni and Salvini do not go to Cutro to pray in front of the coffins, they leave Cutro without wanting to see them and then at night a little karaoke for Salvini’s birthday,” journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli said on Twitter. “They sing on the wrong day. In the wrong place,” the director of The stampMassimo Giannini.
new migratory wave
These massive rescues take place during a new wave of arrivals on the Italian coasts in which close to 4,000 migrants arrived in the last four days.
Particularly worrying is the situation on the island of Lampedusaa few miles from the North African coast, and where about 2,700 migrants are crowded into the small reception center with a capacity for about 300 people and some of them will only be able to move in the next few days.
In Cutro, around 5,000 people, including many representatives of humanitarian associations, demonstrated under the slogan “Stop the massacre immediately” to protest the deaths of migrants.
