President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday that politicians should listen to Pope Leo XIV and stop treating migration as a emergency and take a more balanced, long-term approach during the traditional ‘fan’ meeting with reporters before parliament’s summer recess.

“Leo XIV has appealed to the consciences of those around the world who hold institutional responsibilities about the epochal phenomenon of migration,” Mattarella said during the ceremony at the Quirinal Palace in Rome.

“I personally consider the pontiff’s observation, that it is absolutely necessary to set aside an emergency-logic outlook — which is beyond a shadow of a doubt entirely unproductive — and to commit to strategic measures to manage the phenomenon to be indisputable, and I fully agree with it.
“This is a feasible, sustainable strategy and the only one capable of averting an otherwise inevitable alternative fate: that of suffering chaotic consequences and trying—in vain—to silence our consciences in the face of what is happening”.

The head of State also commented on growing tension and point-scoring between political parties ahead of the next general election, with the current parliamentary term set to end next year.

“I constantly hope that the internal political life of our country unfolds in a spirit of mutual respect; without unwarranted verbal aggression, which is often unprovoked and, in my view, counterproductive too,” Mattarella said.

“I hope that electoral tensions—which, to be honest, are rather untimely—do not divert attention from the issues affecting the daily lives of our fellow citizens and do not lead to a distortion of the reality of these matters”.

Photo: an archive image of Mattarella during a recent visit to Pantelleria.