2023-05-04 17:27:13
New Franco-Italian crisis on the burning file of immigration: the head of Italian diplomacy, Antonio Tajani, canceled, Thursday, May 4, his first visit to Paris after remarks, qualified as“unacceptable”of the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, against the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
This one “is unable to resolve the migration issues on which she was elected”, said Gérald Darmanin on RMC while the peninsula has witnessed record arrivals of migrants on its coasts since January. Mr. Darmanin was responding to a question about remarks made by the president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, about the migratory situation at the Franco-Italian border.
“Yes, there is an influx of migrants and especially minors” in the south of France, admitted Mr. Darmanin, who blamed it on Rome: “The truth is that in Tunisia there are (…) a political situation which means that many children in particular go back up via Italy and that Italy is unable (…) to manage this migratory pressure. » “Meloni is like [la cheffe de file de l’extrême droite en France Marine] Le Pen, she got elected on “you will see what you will see” and then what we see is that [l’immigration] don’t stop and let it get bigger”, continued the French minister. According to him, the head of the Italian government is facing “a very serious migration crisis”.
A hot topic between the two countries
The reaction of Rome to this attack in order was not long in coming: the head of Italian diplomacy, who was expected Thursday evening in Paris for a meeting with his counterpart, Catherine Colonna, immediately canceled his visit. “The offenses against the government and Italy launched by Mr. Darmanin are unacceptable”he denounced on Twitter. “This is not the spirit with which we should face common European challenges. »
Faced with the escalation, Paris tried to calm things down, the Quai d’Orsay ” Hoping “ that the visit would be “quickly rescheduled”. “The French government wishes to work with Italy to face the common challenge represented by the rapid increase in migratory flows”, had said earlier the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the wake of Mr. Darmanin’s remarks. The bilateral relationship is “based on mutual respect, between our two countries and between their leaders”also underlined the Quai d’Orsay.
Immigration has for years been an extremely sensitive subject in Franco-Italian relations. In November, the two countries experienced a strong outbreak of fever when the Meloni government, barely in power, refused to allow a humanitarian ship from the NGO SOS Méditerranée to dock, which ended up being welcomed by France in Toulon (Var ) with more than two hundred migrants on board.
The episode had angered Paris, which had called a European meeting so that this unprecedented scenario did not happen again. Since then, clandestine crossings by boat have increased with the development of a new maritime corridor between Tunisia and Italy, on the front line at the gates of Europe.
According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, more than 42,000 people have arrived via the Mediterranean in Italy this year compared to around 11,000 over the same period in 2022. In this context, the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, announced to the end of April the mobilization of 150 police and gendarmes “additional” to do “in the face of increased migratory pressure at the Italian border” as well as the creation of a « border force »a force at the frontiers.
“In Australia, it works very well”defended Gérald Darmanin on Thursday: “At the border, people are questioned and made to pass identity checks. »
According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest for migrants in the Mediterranean since 2017.
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