Italy refused to welcome this ship with 230 migrants on board, undermining the efforts of those who, around Prime Minister Meloni, wanted to work in good intelligence with Paris on several files.
by Allan Kaval (Rome, correspondent), Claire Gatinois, Julia Pascual and Philippe Jacqué (Brussels, European office)
Paris which denounces the “inadmissible” attitude of Rome. Rome which denounces a French “aggressive, incomprehensible and unjustified” reaction. Friday, November 11, the diplomatic crisis between France and Italy continued, while the humanitarian ship Ocean-Viking had accosted in the early morning in Toulon, after three weeks of waiting in the central Mediterranean and the obstinate refusal of Italy To offer a safe port to 230 migrants on board – four others had been evacuated earlier to Bastia for health reasons.
In retaliation for Italy, which should have accommodated the boat of the NGO SOS Mediterranean under international maritime law, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Thursday, “Extremely strong consequences on the bilateral relationship” and possible “legal consequences”. “If we cannot put the public debate on the heart of all that – we need cooperation to prevent migration, and to fight against the inequalities that produce them – we will spend crazy and crazy energy to try To have a treatment simply of symptoms, “said Emmanuel Macron on Friday at the Paris forum on peace. “International cooperation is necessary,” he insisted.
In the immediate future, France suspended its participation in the fragile relocation mechanism put in place this summer. The latter provided that a dozen member states of the European Union, including France and Germany, voluntarily welcome 8,000 migrants who arrived in countries of first entry into Europe, such as Italy. “The relocation planned for the benefit of Italy of 3,500 people in France between the summer of 2022 and the summer of 2023 is completely suspended,” announced the Ministry of the Interior. Until then, only a few dozen asylum seekers had benefited from it. France has also strengthened its border controls with Italy, “knowing that the more controls there are, the more migrants are returned to them,” said an executive advisor. “It is the Italian government which is a loser,” said Darmanin.
diplomatic crisis
In Rome, we pretend to fall from the clouds. Friday, the head of the far -right government, Giorgia Meloni, denounced a “incomprehensible” French reaction. Joined by Le Monde In the afternoon, the presidency of the council is limited to explaining the current tension by a change of unexplained opinion from Paris. As if France was first opened to welcome the ship, before retracting suddenly, leaving italy isolated. At the root of this confusing explanation is the publication, Tuesday afternoon, of a dispatch from the Italian press agency Ansa, citing an anonymous source of the French Interior Ministry according to which the Paris authorities were preparing to Welcome the Ocean-Viking in Marseille.
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