Alexandre Chauveau, with AFP / Photo credit: Andreas SOLARO, Ludovic MARIN / AFP
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08:04, May 05, 2023
New crisis between Paris and Rome on the burning issue of immigration: the head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani canceled his first visit to Paris on Thursday after remarks described as “unacceptable” by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin against the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The latter “is unable to resolve the migratory problems on which it was elected”, affirmed Gérald Darmanin on the French radio RMC while the peninsula has witnessed record arrivals of migrants on its coasts since January.
A response from Darmanin to Bardella
Gérald Darmanin was responding to a question about remarks by the president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party Jordan Bardella about the migration situation at the Franco-Italian border, where French law enforcement forces are pushing migrants back to France. ‘Italy. “Yes, there is an influx of migrants and especially minors” in the south of France, admitted Gérald Darmanin, who blamed Rome for it: “The truth is that there are Tunisia (…) a political situation which means that many children in particular go up through Italy and that Italy is unable (…) to manage this migratory pressure”.
“Meloni, it’s like (the leader of the far right in France Marine) Le Pen, she gets elected on ‘you’re going to see what you’re going to see’ and then what we see is that that (immigration) does not stop and that it increases”, continued the French minister. According to him, the Prime Minister is facing “a very serious migration crisis”.
The head of Italian diplomacy cancels his visit to Paris
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 must face common European challenges”.
The leader of the Antimigrant League Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Giorgia Meloni, also protested: “I do not accept lessons on immigration from those who send women, children back to Italy and men,” he said. He also criticized France for “continuing to harbor murderers and terrorists who should return to Italy”, referring to the rejection in March of the extradition requests of ten former far-left Italian activists who had been living in France for decades and claimed by Rome for acts qualified as terrorism during the “years of lead”.
Paris tries to calm things down
Faced with the escalation, Paris tried to calm things down. “I spoke to my colleague @Antonio_Tajani on the phone”, tweeted, in Italian, Catherine Colonna. “I told him that the relationship between Italy and France is based on mutual respect, between our two countries and between their leaders”, she added, stressing that she hoped “to be able to welcome him soon in Paris”. Immigration has been an ultra-sensitive subject in Franco-Italian relations for years.
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 (south ) with more than 200 migrants on board. The episode had angered Paris, which had called a European meeting so that this unprecedented scenario did not happen again.
More than 42,000 people arrived on the Italian coast in 2023
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 Interior Ministry, 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, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced at the end of April the mobilization of 150 “additional” police and gendarmes to deal with “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 Thursday Gérald Darmanin: “At the border, we challenge people and we make them 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.