The government of change? Migration and defence policy under Giuseppe Conte’s first cabinet

ABSTRACT

In 2018, a fully populist government, without any mainstream parties, was formed in Italy. Some authors expected to see a considerable degree of policy change, while others predicted a limited – and mainly symbolic – transformation. However, few studies have investigated the impact of the new government on migration and on defence policy. To what extent did the ‘Yellow-Green’ government foster policy change with respect to traditional approaches in these policy domains? This article aims to gauge the extent of policy change in the fields of migration and defence under Giuseppe Conte’s (first) cabinet (June 2018-August 2019). Relying upon secondary and primary sources (semi-structured interviews with ministers, MPs, diplomats, experts, etc.), we contribute to the literature on the impact of populist parties on migration and defence policies once in office, advancing the hypothesis of a ‘salience-constraints’ balance.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• foreign-policy change
• Italy
• Lega
• M5s
• migration
• defence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. On the foreign policy of the ‘Yellow-Green’ government, see: Cladi and Locatelli (2021); Giurlando (2020), Coticchia (2021); Monteleone (2021).

2. For a conceptual clarification of the distinction between nationalism and populism see Chryssogelos. For the author, the ‘key similarity is their shared emphasis on sovereignty, the idea that a group of humans is entitled to rule itself (2022, 7). For nationalists, this group is the ‘nation’, while for populists it is the ‘people’.

3. See: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/browse/all/series/4961

4. Anonymous former staff member at the Ministry of Defence (2019), interviewed (face-to-face) on 7 November.

5. Pioppi, S. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone), on 23 October.

6. Vignarca, F. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone) on 5 November.

7. Anonymous staff member at the Ministry of Defence and former Security Officer in Afghanistan. Interviewed (by telephone), on 23 October 2019.

8. Marrone, A. and Pioppi, D. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone) on 21 and 23 October.

9. Vignarca, F. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone), on 5 November.

10. Analisi Difesa (2019) ‘Il generale Cornacchione scrive una (dura) lettera al premier Conte’. 18 May.

11. Pioppi, S. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone), on 23 October.

12. Parliamentary Minutes, Minister of Defence before Joint Defence Commissions, 26 July 2018.

13. Trenta, E. (2019). Interviewed (face-to-face) on 31 October.

14. Italy deployed 7,967 units in 2018 and 7,434 in 2019. See: Senate of the Republic, Dossier 18 December 2018; Senate of the Republic, Dossier 13 May 2019.

15. Author’s telephone interviews with N. Pirozzi, IAI, 24 October 2019, and with Stefano Pioppi, 23 October 2019.

16. Rizzo, G. (2019), Interviewed (written) on 15 December.

17. Trenta, E. (2019). Interviewed on 31 October.

18. Ibid.

19. Marrone, A. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone) on 21 October The Conte II government, which was supported by the M5s and the PD, officially joined the EI2 in September 2019.

20. Ministry of Defence, ‘Documento programmatico pluriennale per la difesa 2019–2021’.

21. Formentini, P. (2019). Interviewed (by telephone) on 5 November.

22. Trenta, E. (2019). Interviewed on 31 October.

23. la Repubblica (2019) ‘Sugli F35 governo ancora diviso.‘ 14 March.

24. Pioppi S. (2019) ‘Ecco i programmi che saranno finanziati dalla Difesa (2019–2021)’, Formiche, https://formiche.net/2019/06/difesa-documento-programmatico-pluriennale-programmi/.

25. This has also been confirmed by our interview with Elisabetta Trenta.

26. Trenta, E. (2019). Interviewed on 31 October.

27. Ibid.

28. Ministry of Defence (2019) Riunione del Consiglio Supremo di Difesa, 25 June.

29. Pioppi S. (2019)’ La Nato conta’, Formiche.

30. Authors’ interviews with Vignarca and with a former staff member at the Ministry of Defence.

31. UN General Assembly (2016) New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/ODG/GCM/NY_Declaration.pdf

32. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2018) Global Compact for Migration, Press Releases, https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/comunicati/global-compact-for-migration.html

33. la Repubblica (2018) Migranti, Salvini annuncia lo stop al Global Compact dell’Onu, 28 November.

34. Chamber of Deputies, 28 November 2018.

35. la Repubblica (2018) ‘Migranti, Salvini annuncia lo stop’.

36. Carletti, C. (2021). Interviewed (via Skype) on 7 June.

37. Agi (2018), ‘Salvini e Conte fermano il Global compact, ma il M5s è diviso’, 28 November.

38. Chamber of Deputies, 28 November 2018.

39. Similarly, the League MP, Paolo Formentini, expressed his concern that the GC would eventually become ‘a sort of soft law’ Formentini, P. (2019). Interviewed, (by telephone) on 5 November.

40. Chamber of Deputies, Mozione 1/00102.

41. Carletti, C. (2021). Interviewed (via Skype) on 7 June.

42. Villa, M. (2021). Interviewed (via Skype) on 24 May.

43. Council Decision (CFSP) 2015/778 of 18 May 2015.

44. Walt V (2018) ‘We want to change things from within’.

45. Authors’ online interview with Matteo Villa, ISPI Research Fellow.

46. European Council (2019) European Council Meeting (28 June 2018) – Conclusions, EUCO 9/18, Press Releases, 28 June.

47. Ziniti A (2018) ‘Porti chiusi anche alle navi militari europee, ma Salvini irrita la Difesa’, la Repubblica.

48. Messaggero (2018) ‘Migranti, nave Gdf davanti Pozzallo’. 14 July.

49. Avvenire (2018) ‘Operazione Sophia. Europa fredda su condivisione porti’. 30 August.

50. Peduzzi P (2019) ‘L’Ue si è scocciata della guerra di Salvini sui migranti. Il caso Sophia’, Il Foglio, 23 January.

51. D’Argenio A. (2019) ‘Migranti, la missione Sophia verso il pensionamento’, la Repubblica, 22 March.

52. Bertolotti, C. (2019). Interviewed on 23 October.

53. Varvelli, A. (2021), Interviewed (via Skype), 31 May.

54. According to Ministry of the Interior data, in 2017 migrant arrivals amounted to 119,310 compared to 181,436 in 2016 and 23,370 in 2018.

55. Authors’ anonymous online interview with a high-level official of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome, 31 October.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michela Ceccorulli

Michela Ceccorulli is Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna. She is also Adjunct Professor at the Dickinson Center for European Studies. Her research interests lie around migration, security and security governance. Among her publications, 'Framing irregular immigration in security terms: the Libya case, Florence, Florence University Press, 2014; with Sonia Lucarelli and Enrico Fassi (eds), The EU Migration System of Governance. Justice on the Move', Palgrave 2021 and with Nicola Labanca (eds), 'The EU, migration and the politics of administrative detention', Routledge, 2014.

Fabrizio Coticchia

Fabrizio Coticchia is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Genoa. He has been Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. His fields of research are foreign policy analysis and security studies. He focuses on contemporary warfare, strategic culture, Italian and European defense, party politics and security issues. His latest book is ”Italian Foreign Policy under Matteo Renzi: A Domestically-Focused Outsider and the World”, with J. Davidson (Lexington 2019).

Stella Gianfreda

Stella Gianfreda is a Post-doctoral Researcher of Political Science at the University of Genova. She focuses on migration and party politics. Her latest book is: “Where Do the Parties Stand? Political Competition on Immigration and the EU in National and European Parliamentary Debates”, Springer 2021.