Europe 1 with AFP
modified to
11:48 a.m., November 11, 2022
“Aggressive, incomprehensible and unjustified”. The head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni denounced this Friday the French reaction, within the framework of the tensions between Rome and Paris around the ship ‘Ocean Viking’ of the NGO SOS Méditerranée. After several days of passing the buck, France finally opened the port of Toulon to the ship.
The head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni denounced Friday an “aggressive, incomprehensible and unjustified” French reaction, Paris having announced retaliatory measures against Rome which refused to dock a ship carrying migrants, forcing France to welcome it.
“I was very marked by the aggressive reaction of the French government which is incomprehensible and unjustified,” she told the press. However, she assured that she wanted to find “a European solution” to the migration issue. “It’s not smart to argue with France, Spain, Greece, Malta or with other countries. I want to look for a common solution,” she said.
Repercussion on the “bilateral relationship”
The Ocean Viking ship with 230 migrants on board arrived at the port of Toulon in southern France on Friday and “a third” of the migrant passengers will be “relocated” to France, announced Paris which criticized the “incomprehensible choice”. of Italy not to accept the humanitarian ship.
In protest, France has decided to suspend “with immediate effect” the reception planned for this summer of 3,500 refugees currently in Italy. France “will also draw the consequences” of the Italian attitude on the other aspects of its “bilateral relationship”, affirmed the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Italy “is not the only port of disembarkation
Giorgia Meloni for her part took up the justifications put forward the day before by her Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi who had retorted to her French counterpart that Italy had welcomed nearly 90,000 migrants this year while the European countries which had committed to help and take care of 8,000 people had finally welcomed only 117.
“Something is not working” in the European management of migrants, said Giorgia Meloni, stressing that “it is not written in any agreement” that Italy must be “the only possible port of disembarkation in the Mediterranean”. Gioriga Meloni pointed out that “on the very day” when the dispute over the Ocean Viking ship began, Italy “welcomed 600 migrants to its shores”.