“To better understand the Italian decision to suspend Schengen, one must look at Rome, not Madrid. The real reason is not Pedro Sánchez: it is Roberto Vannacci.” This statement comes from Sandro Gozi, MEP for Renew Europe and secretary-general of the European Democratic Party.

“The Italian government’s choice,” Gozi continues, “was dictated by poll numbers, not by migration flows. The proof is that while Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced the border closures, 48,300 of roughly 50,000 migrants had already returned to Morocco: a decision made after the emergency had effectively ended.”

According to the MEP, “Italy itself, a country with thousands of kilometres of external maritime borders, should be the first to defend Schengen’s rules, not the first to break them.”

Because those rules, Gozi adds, “are our primary line of defence: the day it is accepted that one State can unilaterally suspend another’s free movement, that precedent will rebound against us more than against anyone else.”

“Instead of weakening the only instrument that protects Italy, the government should strengthen it. True sovereignty today is European. Everything else is domestic propaganda,” Gozi concludes.