Professor Martinico: Far-right approaches to migration are becoming EU mainstream
Professor of comparative public law Giuseppe Martinico believes that approaches to migration previously associated with the radical right are increasingly spreading into the political mainstream of the European Union. In a letter published by The Guardian, he called migration policy the clearest example of this cultural shift.
Convergence of government positions
Martinico noted that the convergence of the positions of the governments of Denmark and Italy, despite their political differences, indicates that such approaches have moved beyond the radical right. In his assessment, some centre-left and centre-right forces have gradually moved away from a rights-based approach to migration.
In the professor's view, migrants are increasingly less often presented in European political debate as people endowed with rights. He believes that their dignity should be a limit on the decisions that a political majority may legitimately make.
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Assessment of the European Commission's role
The author of the letter also linked this cultural shift to the weakness of the European Commission. According to him, the second European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen began its work under conditions of a strong presidency, but he believes that this political weight has diminished over time.
As an example, Martinico cited the response to the crisis in Ceuta. He stated that neither European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen nor European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner sent a strong political signal that could have counterbalanced the strengthening of hard national positions.
The professor believes that the problem is not limited to the weakening of the traditional barrier against the far right. In his view, such a barrier loses significance if a significant part of the political mainstream has already adopted the approaches it was meant to contain.
