The Hague – January, 2019 – “I cannot accept that you produce criminality,” said Leoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo and GPM Mayor. Hereby Orlando has made a strong statement by ordering its local registry office to reject the new ‘decreto sicurezza’ clause, because it abolishes asylum protection for migrants. This security law makes it possible for national authorities to deny the initial right of migrants to apply for full residency after two years of asylum. Mayor Orlando argues that the implementation (Article 13; 132 Security Decree) would subsequently criminalize migrants by preventing them from accessing residency and apply for work and therefore orders the suspension of the new security law in Palermo. The Mayor of Naples is in support of Mayor Orlando by suspending the security law in Naples as well.”
More background information can be found here.
To read the Statement of Support from French Sociologist and Philosofer Edgar Morin click here, where he refers to Mayor Orlando as the only politician with a humanist mind set: “Aujourd’hui, le seul homme politique d’esprit humaniste est le maire de Palerme, lorsqu’il a dit qu’il n’y avait pas d’étrangers et qu’il n’y a que des Palermitains. Cela montre à quel point nous sommes isolés, en régression. C’est pourquoi je pense que l’heure est à la résistance à toutes les régressions et barbaries, y compris la barbarie glacée du calcul qui ignore que les humains sont de chair, de sang et d’âme.” in ‘La Libération’ of February 3, 2019.
