The object of a diplomatic showdown between Paris and Rome, this ship, with 234 migrants, remains stranded in the Mediterranean while waiting to be welcomed.
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© SEVERINE KPOTI / Mission Lifeline / AFP
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HASpick up the boat ocean viking in France is a “humanitarian emergency” for some, an “error” for others: left and right were divided on Wednesday on the situation of the ship, the object of a diplomatic showdown between Paris and Rome. The Renaissance president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, questioned in It’s up to you on France 5, answered “yes” to the welcome: “The French tradition is a tradition of welcoming […]. There is the right, but there is also what we must do as human beings with regard to other human beings. »
“It’s a fait accompli”, for his part declared the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, about this boat of the NGO SOS Méditerranée which is heading for France, with 234 migrants on board, after Italy’s refusal to accept them. “With us, theocean vikingas’Aquarius in 2018, could not land on the French coast,” he added to the press.
For him, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was right to refuse to welcome theocean viking and to send the ship back to France, because “Mr. Macron wants to welcome everyone”. Giorgia Meloni’s position is deemed “unacceptable” by the French government. “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”, recalled Wednesday the spokesman of the government, Olivier Veran.
READ ALSOMigrants at sea: Giorgia Meloni tests European solidarity
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“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.
READ ALSOMediterranean: a migratory truce… until when?
“There is an urgent need to come to the aid of survivors who are at sea and who have already suffered various traumas”, declared, on the contrary, the deputy of La France insoumise Carlos Martens Bilongo, during a press conference. de la Nupes to launch a “solemn appeal to the President of the Republic” to welcome the 234 migrants on French soil. According to him, an influenza epidemic affected “everyone on board”.
READ ALSOAgreement on migrants: Macron’s small step towards Italy
“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 ‘welcome the’ocean viking on the Isle of Beauty. “In exceptional cases, exceptional conditions,” he added to the parliamentary press.
In accordance with its tradition of hospitality and to avoid any loss of human life, the #Corsica is ready, if necessary, to temporarily host the#OceanViking in one of its ports.
— Gilles Simeoni (@Gilles_Simeoni) November 8, 2022