Government spokesman Olivier Véran on Wednesday asked Italy to “play its role” and “respect its European commitments”, by welcoming the ship Ocean Viking on which more than 200 migrants are stranded. “The boat is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are extremely clear European rules which have moreover been accepted by the Italians who are, in fact, the first beneficiary of a European financial solidarity mechanism”, added recalled Olivier Véran, considering “unacceptable” the “statements” of the Italian government and its “refusal to let this boat dock”.
“A few more hours of discussions”, says Véran
On Tuesday, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked France for accepting to welcome the Ocean Viking from the European NGO SOS Méditerranée and its 234 migrant passengers. “The diplomatic mechanisms are still in action at the time I am speaking to you so I cannot go beyond that”, swept Olivier Véran.
“We still have a few hours of discussions left and, in any case, we are still at this stage”, he added, nevertheless promising that “nobody will let this boat run the slightest risk, obvious to those on board”. “Faced with the deafening silence of Italy”, SOS Méditerranée said it had asked France on Tuesday to assign a safe port to the Ocean Viking which “should arrive in international waters near Corsica on November 10”. Italy’s new government, the most right-wing since World War II, has pledged to take a hard line on migrants.
The right and the extreme right opposed to a reception of the boat
In France, left and right are divided on a possible reception of the boat: a “humanitarian emergency” for some, an “error” for others. “It’s a fait accompli”, declared the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, about this boat of the NGO SOS Méditerranée which is heading for Corsica with 234 migrants on board, after the refusal of the Italy to welcome them. “With us the Ocean Viking, like the Aquarius in 2018, could not land on the French coast,” he added to the press.
For him, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was right to refuse to welcome the Ocean Viking and to send the ship back to France because “Mr. Macron wants to welcome everyone”.
“It would be a fault, a mistake” to welcome this boat in a French port, estimated for his part Éric Ciotti (LR) on Radio J. “It would be to give a sign for the smugglers who exploit human distress”, said he added, anxious to “save” the people on board, but who, according to him, will then have to be taken back to their starting point.
“There is an urgent need to help the survivors”, says Bilongo
“There is an urgent need to come to the aid of survivors who are at sea and who have already suffered various traumas”, declared the deputy of La France insoumise Carlos Martens Bilongo, on the contrary, during a press conference of the Nupes to launch a “solemn appeal to the President of the Republic” to welcome the 234 migrants on French soil. According to him, an epidemic of influenza reached “all the people on board”.
“We want an end to the dramatic and criminal childishness between European governments which seem to send the bullet back to each other, where we are talking about human lives”, for his part commented the PS deputy Benjamin Lucas. The president of the Modem group in the Assembly, Jean-Paul Mattei, who belongs to the presidential majority, said he was ready to “look with a certain openness” at the proposal of the president of the Corsican executive Gilles Simeoni to to welcome the Ocean Viking to the Isle of Beauty. “In exceptional cases, exceptional conditions,” he added to the parliamentary press.