Matteo Salvini

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte resigned on Jan. 26 after a key coalition ally pulled his party's support over Conte's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, setting the stage for consultations this week to determine if he can form a third government.

Police check at the Port of Piraeus, Greece. Photo: Aggelos Barai

Just a few days earlier, on February 28, Matteo Salvini, Italy's former interior minister and leader of the country's most popular party, the right-wing League, openly accused African migrants of bringing the virus to Italy.

Italian senators voted on Feb. 12 to lift immunity for far-right leader Matteo Salvini, opening the way for a potentially career-ending trial over accusations that he illegally detained migrants at sea last year.

The yield in Greece's 10-year Treasury bond continued to dive on Thursday, outpacing even Italy's where the rally was fueled by the agreement between the Five Star Movement and the Democratic party to form a coalition, pushing Lega Nord and its controversial leader, Matteo Salvini, into the opposition.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to push for more solidarity in the European Union over the migrant crisis.
Mitsotakis, who took office on July, met with Macron in Paris on Thursday. He said the migrant crisis must not weigh only on the countries that are on the front line like Greece, Italy and Spain.

Spain and four other EU countries have agreed to accept migrants from the Open Arms rescue ship, EU authorities said today, cited by Reuters and BTA. 

Italy faced a government crisis on Aug. 8 after Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party called for a new election, saying his party's coalition with the populist 5-Star Movement had collapsed over policy differences.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the new conservative prime minister, took office in Greece at what is perhaps the best moment since 2004. Unlike Italy, whose politics are dominated by the controversial Matteo Salvini, other eurozone countries and the UK striving with Brexit, Greece has a stable government and political system.

Volatile Electorates, Contrasting Results

Surprise was not the predominant feeling on the evening of May 26. Nuanced realities of 28 member states prevented any "black and white" EU assessments.

The opposition conservative New Slovenia party, NSi, on Thursday, demanded a session of the foreign policy and interior policy committees in parliament to discuss the new joint Italian-Slovenian border patrols on the borders of the two countries.