The Strategy of the Italian Prime Minister
I have said many times that Matteo Rentzi, the Italian Prime Minister, was the first one to use immigrants against Germany. However the 200 thousand refugees that Matteo Renzi sent to Germany when he became Prime Minister in February 2014 proved to be peanuts compared to the 1 million immigrants that the Greek communists and the Turkish Islamists sent to Germany in 2015, after Alexis Tsipras became Prime Minister of Greece in January 2015. See “Germany’s Defeat by the Turkish Islamists and the Greek Communists”.
At the following table from the United Nations you can see the immigrant flows to Europe.
Map 1 Refugee Influx
Now Matteo Renzi is the only one to block the agreement between Merkel and Edrogan, according to which Turkey will receive 3 billion euros of EU funds, plus some other “gifts”, in order to control the immigrant flows to Europe. The Greek Prime Minister does not object to Turkey getting the money, first because he does not want to hurt the alliance between the Greek Communists and the Turkish Islamists, and second because it would be like admitting that the Greek communists are using the immigrants against Germany. The truth is that everybody knows they are doing it, and the European People’s Party has blamed the Italian and Greek socialists for the immigrant crisis. See Politico below.
However the objections of Matteo Renzi is a great gift for the Greek communists, because they do not have to hurt their alliance with the Turks, and the Turks will keep sending immigrants to Greece and Germany. That’s why Renzi is so popular with the Greek journalists who come mainly from the left.
The Italians are very disappointed that the South Stream Pipeline was cancelled, because ENI was a partner, and they are also very disappointed with the agreement of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, in which ENI was not given any shares. The Russians hold 50% of the shares in Nord Stream 2 and they gave 10% each to the German companies E.ON. and BASF-Wintershall, the Austrian OMV, the French ENGIE, and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell. ENI did not get any shares, and the Italian public is ENI’s largest shareholder.
Map 1 South Stream and North Stream
The Italians are blocking Nord Stream 2 in order to put pressure on the Russians (see Financial Times), and they block the EU economic sanctions against Russia (see Reuters) in order to lure the Russians to give them a share in Nord Stream 2 (see American Interest). At the same time they send refugees to Germany, in order to convince the Germans to give them more money and stop asking for reform and transparency in their public sector.
Articles
“EU-Turkey migrant plan blocked by Italy: officials”, January 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-italy-turkey-immigration-idUSKCN0US2AR20160114
“Italy Wants in on Russian Pipeline”, January 2016
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/01/11/italy-wants-in-on-russian-pipeline/
“Center-right blames left for EU migration woes”, October 2015
http://www.politico.eu/article/center-right-blames-left-for-eu-migratio-refugees-epp-congres/
“Italy’s Renzi joins opposition to Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal”, December 2015
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cebd679c-a281-11e5-8d70-42b68cfae6e4.html#axzz3ww21RVV3
“Italy PM Renzi says Russian sanctions to be reviewed in coming months”, December 2015
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-eu-sanctions-italy-idUSKBN0TZ0UQ20151216