PALERMO - “All Lives Matter. Even the lives of those who die at sea.” So said the Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, in a letter to Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, proposing the creation of a new emergency service: the European Rescue Service, to combat the rising numbers of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean.

  “Financed by the EU and with the participation of volunteers and the cities that receive them, that occupy themselves with the rescue of lives at sea,” said the Mayor to Il Fatto Quotidiano. “We cannot remain inactive in front of the hundreds of bodies from shipwrecks as there were on May 9: Europe cannot look the other way.”

  “We will conduct new Nuremberg trials, we must be tried for this genocide: we talk of thousands of deaths and while during the Second World War the concentration camps weren’t known about, we cannot say we don’t know about this.”

  After such a strong comparison he went on to suggest real actionable possibilities. “I believe that Europe must abolish the residence permit, the new death penalty, the new slavery.” He lamented how the national debate only concerns itself with the migrant crisis after such a tragedy as the last few days, saying, “we’re making a cynical racket… While we debate on this talk show and that, we are losing lives at sea.”

  With his letter Orlando hopes to bypass the national debate and move straight to direct European action.

  “If there is a fire is the fire service not put to action? This is worse than a fire and Europe cannot ignore what is happening. Italy had asked the Coast Guard to save lives with Operation Mare Nostrum, which was then suspended and had to be replaced by a European operation: however no one noticed this replacement, especially the shipwrecked.”

  He added, “a few days ago the Coast Guard defined them as the shipwrecked, not migrants, and I say: finally. Because it doesn’t matter how you ended up in the sea; if you were on a cruise ship or a sailing boat or a barge, where you come from isn’t important, you are in the sea and have to saved. Only then let’s discuss the welcome, while we don’t let them die.”

  He explained to Il Fatto, “Lampedusa is not the problem, the problem is that they are dying before they arrive. Then we can discuss at will how to make them welcome but in the meantime we cannot let them die: would we let cruise ships die at sea?"

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