2023-09-24 23:53:45
Time.news – After tensions with Germany over the discovery that Berlin finances NGOs that save migrants in the Mediterranean, Rome has a thaw with France on the same issue. Italy, President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview the day after meeting the Pope in Marseille, “nIt should not be left alone“: for this reason, Macron extended his hand to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, proposing that they work together.
“Italy is assuming its responsibilities, it has made a strong choice and is carrying out its role as ‘first safe harbour’ but, said Macron, “the response must be European”. The opening was welcomed by prime minister “with great interest”.
“It is clear that Italy, France and the EU must act together to support the states of origin of migrants and to help transit states to dismantle the criminal networks of human traffickers. This is the direction that the Italian government has already taken and which wants to pursue together with the European institutions and its European allies”, commented Meloni.
My interview on 8 p.m. on TF1 and France 2.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 24, 2023
The statements by the French head of state were a response to the Pope who in Marseille but also today continued to reiterate his appeal against indifference towards migrants.
“He is right – observed Macron – but I believe that we French do our part, and we cannot accept all the misery of the world”, he added, quoting a famous phrase uttered by the former socialist prime minister Michel Rocard in 1989.
According to Macron, Europe and countries like France and Italy together need to have “an approach consistent with the countries of origin. The majority of migrants come from sub-Saharan Africa, where the countries have development aid. We must say ‘we will help you , but you must help us dismantle the traffickers’ networks.
A second tool to address the issue concerns transit countries, such as Tunisia and Algeria: “I want to export experts and equipment to those countries” to dismantle the migrant trafficking networks, he said. “I want to propose partnerships and resources to prevent to these people to leave. And when they arrive, we must have a European policy.”
Tension with Germany
The climate of the long-distance exchange between Rome and Berlin was of a completely different tone: Defense Minister Guido Crosetto responded personally to the German Foreign Ministry which claimed the correctness of the financing of NGOs for the search and rescue of migrants at sea , saying that he would have expected “help and solidarity in a moment of difficulty, as we Italians are in the habit of doing with all nations, when they are in difficulty”.
“It comes naturally to us Italians. As regards rescues at sea, I want to remind our German friends that those carried out by NGOs represent just 5%”. At Time.news, Crosetto said that “Italy also saves, and has saved, thousands of people, even without the help of NGOs. Pretending that migration can only be tackled by financing NGOs and not by standing alongside friendly nations is an inappropriate way” of dealing with the problem”.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will go to Paris, where he intended to tell his counterpart Catherine Colonna that “France is wrong” about the rejections in Ventimiglia, according to what he said in an interview preceding Macron’s statements. The head of the Farnesina will also go to Berlin on Thursday: I will talk to my German colleague about the German government’s decision to finance NGOs. It is a strange attitude, we will try to understand why he moves in this way”, added the deputy prime minister. “The problem exists but it must be addressed in a supportive manner, not in a selfish way. We are the southern frontier of Europe.”
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