Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte pitched his new left-leaning coalition to lawmakers Monday ahead of crucial confidence votes, while the right-wing leader who brought down the last government protested at a rally outside Parliament that citizens wanted their say at the ballot box.
The lower Chamber of Deputies, where Conte's second government has a fairly comfortable majority, was set to vote Monday evening. Fortunes for the coalition - the populist 5-Star Movement, the center-left Democratic Party and a tiny left-wing party - are dicier in the Senate, which is set to vote Tuesday.
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Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte pitched his new left-leaning coalition to lawmakers Monday ahead of crucial confidence votes, while the right-wing leader who brought down the last government protested at a rally outside Parliament that citizens wanted their say at the ballot box.
But the 5-Stars and Democrats set aside bitter rivalry to forge an alternative coalition, foiling Salvini and his far-right allies in their immediate quest for an election.
While he spoke, boos and catcalls rose from the ranks of opposition lawmakers, as well as from protesters in the square outside the Chamber's headquarters.
Any defections by lawmakers uneasy with the new alliance could cost Conte victory in the confidence votes, especially in the Senate, where his majority comes down to a handful of senators. If he loses, he must resign as premier.
Harsh EU fiscal rules, coupled with a perceived lack of EU solidarity as Italy struggled to serve huge numbers of migrants who headed to Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, helped boost Salvini's popularity when he was interior minister in Conte's first government.
Salvini was defiant. "We'll close the ports, all together, because in Italy you don't get in without permission."
Conte's first, all-populist government collapsed after 14 months when Interior Minister Matteo Salvini withdrew his anti-migrant League as a coalition partner. The firebrand League leader bet the move would trigger an early election to him the premiership.
Brothers of Italy right wing party leader Giorgia Meloni waves during a demonstration with the League protesting against the 5-Star and Democratic party coalition government outside the Lower Chamber, in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Conte is pitching for support in Parliament for his new left-leaning coalition ahead of crucial confidence votes and the lower Chamber of Deputies, where the government has a comfortable majority, is set to vote Monday evening. (Riccardo AntimianiANSA via AP)
But the 5-Stars and Democrats set aside bitter rivalry to forge an alternative coalition, foiling Salvini and his far-right allies in their immediate quest for an election.
Conte vowed his new government would be long-lasting and focused on getting Italy's stubbornly stagnant economy growing again.
His coalition will pursue "a broad-ranging reformist agenda and for a long period, to make the best energies of Italy grow and to help relaunch sustainable growth, employment and social cohesion" in Europe," the premier told lawmakers Monday.
The League's leader Matteo Salvini speaks during a demonstration with far-right party Brothers of Italy against the 5-Star and Democratic party coalition government while Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte was addressing Parliament at the Lower Chamber, in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. The lower Chamber of Deputies, where the government has a comfortable majority, is set to vote Monday evening. (Riccardo AntimianiANSA via AP)
While he spoke, boos and catcalls rose from the ranks of opposition lawmakers, as well as from protesters in the square outside the Chamber's headquarters.
"Inside, there's a regime that know that it's about to fall," Salvini, still hopeful of getting an early election, told the rally crowd.
The Democrats and the 5-Stars were political enemies until last month, and Conte will have to work to get his two main coalition partners to stick together. He called for political forces to "put aside egoism and old rancor."
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte addresses parliament ahead of confidence vote later at the Lower Chamber in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Conte is pitching for support in Parliament for his new left-leaning coalition ahead of crucial confidence votes. (AP PhotoAndrew Medichini)
Any defections by lawmakers uneasy with the new alliance could cost Conte victory in the confidence votes, especially in the Senate, where his majority comes down to a handful of senators. If he loses, he must resign as premier.
With the difficult task of slashing billions of euros from the 2020 state budget looming, Conte also appealed to European Union leaders for flexibility in spending rules.
Conte also insisted that EU nations take more of the share of asylum-seekers and refugees, who are fleeing poverty as well as persecution. Opinion polls show Italians favored the crackdowns on illegal immigration led by Salvini under the previous government.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, standing at center, sits with his cabinet ministers as he addresses parliament ahead of confidence vote later at the Lower Chamber in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Conte is pitching for support in Parliament for his new left-leaning coalition ahead of crucial confidence votes. (AP PhotoAndrew Medichini)
Harsh EU fiscal rules, coupled with a perceived lack of EU solidarity as Italy struggled to serve huge numbers of migrants who headed to Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, helped boost Salvini's popularity when he was interior minister in Conte's first government.
Buoyed by a League triumph in European Parliament elections this year, Salvini stiffened an already-tough government policy on illegal immigration, in particular banning charity migrant rescue boats from entering Italian ports.
Conte indicated that policy will be tweaked, without giving details.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, standing at center, sits with his cabinet ministers as he addresses parliament ahead of confidence vote later at the Lower Chamber in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Conte is pitching for support in Parliament for his new left-leaning coalition ahead of crucial confidence votes. (AP PhotoAndrew Medichini)
Salvini was defiant. "We'll close the ports, all together, because in Italy you don't get in without permission."
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte leans to listen to Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, left, ahead of confidence vote later, at the Lower Chamber in Rome, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Conte is pitching for support in Parliament for his new left-leaning coalition ahead of crucial confidence votes. (AP PhotoAndrew Medichini)
BEIRUT (AP) — The European Union announced Thursday an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — that will mostly go to boost border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.
The deal follows other EU aid packages for countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritania to fortify their borders. It comes against a backdrop of increasing hostility toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a major surge in irregular migration of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Cyprus.
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a Beirut visit with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that the aid distribution will start this year and last till 2027.
The bulk of the aid — 736 million euros — would go to support Syrian refugees “and other vulnerable groups” in Lebanon, while 200 million euros are meant to bolster Lebanese security services in enforcing border and migration control, according to figures provided by the Cypriot government.
An unspecified amount would go to Lebanese fishermen, to discourage them from selling their boats to smugglers.
Von der Leyen said the EU will also work on a “more structured approach to voluntary return" of Syrian refugees "in close cooperation with” the U.N. refugee agency. The bloc will continue to maintain “legal pathways” for resettlement of refugees in Europe, she said.
Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati praised the package, saying that “Lebanon’s security is security for European countries and vice versa,” and that an escalation of the crisis ”will not be limited to Lebanon but will extend to Europe."
Lebanon, which has been in the throes of a severe financial crisis since 2019, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands more who are unregistered, the world's highest refugee population per capita.
Lebanese political officials have for years urged the international community to resettle the refugees in other countries or assist their return to Syria — voluntarily or not. Lebanese security forces have stepped up deportations of Syrians over the past year.
Tensions further flared after an official with the Christian nationalist Lebanese Forces party, Pascal Suleiman, was killed last month in what military officials said was a botched carjacking by a Syrian gang. The incident prompted outbreaks of anti-Syrian violence by vigilante groups.
Meanwhile, Cypriot authorities complain the island nation has been overwhelmed by irregular migration of Syrian asylum seekers, many of them coming on boats from Lebanon.
The UNHCR in Lebanon said it had verified 59 “actual or attempted” departures by boats carrying a total of 3,191 passengers from Lebanon between January and mid-April, compared to three documented boat movements carrying 54 passengers in the same period last year. Usually, few boats attempt the much more dangerous crossing in the winter. In all of 2023, UNHCR recorded 65 boat departures carrying 3,927 passengers.
Cyprus has taken a new approach to halting the flow of migrants. Last month, it suspended processing of Syrian asylum applications, and human rights groups accused the Cypriot coast guard of forcibly turning back five boats carrying about 500 asylum seekers coming from Lebanon. Cypriot officials have denied this.
Bassel al-Shayoukh, a Syrian refugee from Idlib living in Lebanon since 2014, said his brother and several cousins and nephews were on one of the boats turned back. Now he wants to make the journey himself.
“In the beginning I thought that in a year or two the war would be over in Syria,” he said, but it dragged on, while in Lebanon “every year ... the situation began to get worse.”
Shayoukh said he fears being beaten by vigilantes or deported to Syria after Lebanese authorities declined to renew his residency permit.
His 17-year-old nephew, who declined to give his name fearing for his safety, said the Cypriot coast guard started making waves to push the boat he was on away. “I was terrified... I don’t know how to swim,” he said. “I thought we were going to die.”
The people on the boats “stayed three days without food or water” before turning back to Lebanon, the teen added.
Back in Lebanon, they were detained by the army; those registered with UNHCR were released and the others deported.
Mohammed Sablouh, a Lebanese human rights lawyer who works on refugee and migrant cases, says Lebanese authorities are deliberately “turning a blind eye" to the surge in migration to "pressure the international community.”
The Lebanese army did not respond to a request for comment on their measures to combat smuggling.
Thursday's aid announcement comes ahead of the annual fundraising conference for Syria in Brussels later this month. After 13 years of civil war, donor fatigue has set in while the world’s attention is occupied by the humanitarian fallout of more recent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Cypriot president said Thursday was a “historic day” and called for European officials to go farther and declare some areas of Syria safe for return.
“The current situation is not sustainable for Lebanon. It is not sustainable for Cyprus, it is not sustainable for the European Union,” Christodoulides said.
But not all Lebanese officials are convinced the European aid would solve the problem.
Lebanese Forces party head Samir Geagea told The Associated Press earlier this week that European authorities are mainly concerned “that the refugees don’t go to Europe."
"For us the problem is that we cannot have our country drowning in illegal Syrian refugees,” Geagea said, urging for Syrians to be sent back to either government or opposition-held areas of the neighboring country.
But Shayoukh says he has nowhere to go.
The Damascus government wants him for opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad, he said, while the Islamist group that now controls his hometown behaves "the same way as the regime’s intelligence services” in crushing dissidents.
Associated Press writer Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s global migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, speaks during his meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, speaks during his meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, welcomes Cyprus' president Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen before their meeting at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen pose for photograph at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, right, welcomes Cyprus' president Nikos Christodoulides before their meeting at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, center, review an honor guard upon their arrival to meet with the Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, speaks during his meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, welcomes Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
