According to the government spokesman, “no one will let this boat run the slightest risk”.
It has been almost twenty days since more than 200 migrants have been stranded on board the ship Ocean Viking. While SOS Méditerranée demanded that France assign the boat a port as soon as possible, Olivier Véran demanded that Italy “plays its role and respects its European commitments“.
Invited to France Info, the government spokesperson insisted that “this boat is currently in Italian territorial waters“. However, he continued,there are clear European rules accepted by the Italians who are, in fact, the first beneficiaries of a European financial solidarity mechanism.»
Olivier Véran castigated “the current attitude of the Italian government” and his “refusal to let this boat dock“. “This is unacceptable“, he decided. What about the role of France, when the boat should arrive in international waters near Corsica? Last week, the Minister of Solidarity, Jean-Christophe Combe, estimated that a “question of humanitycame into play and that France was “ready”. “We need to have a port in Europe or in France that can accommodate them“, he declared on France Info on November 4. More cautious, Olivier Véran said this morning: “No one will let this boat run any risk“. And to add:We are monitoring the situation minute by minute.»
As a reminder, Emmanuel Macron in 2018 twice refused the Aquarius, a ship housing more than 600 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, to dock in Marseille. The President of the Republic had then advocated a European solution, resulting in the distribution of migrants between France, Portugal, Spain and Germany.