Migration reopens tension between France and Italy

Migration has again caused sparks between France and Italy just six months after the last diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, has demanded this Friday an apology from the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, who accused the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, of being “incapable of fixing migration problems”.

Following the statements by the French politician, Tajani canceled a visit that he had planned to make on Thursday to Paris.

The immigration issue is a hot topic both on one side of the border and on the other.

While Italy has decreed a state of emergency due to the increase in migrant arrivals on its shores, the French government has postponed an immigration law until autumn due to lack of parliamentary support.

Darmanin, one of the ministers most inclined to the right of the Government of Emmanuel Macron, has once again poisoned relations between two of the founding partners of the European Union.

"Mrs. Meloni, from the far-right government, elected by friends of Ms. [Marine] Le Pen, is incapable of solving immigration problems, which is why she was elected," he said Thursday during an intervention on RMC radio. .

And she finished: "Meloni is like [Marine] Le Pen, she was chosen on the basis of 'you will see' and what we see is that [immigration] does not stop and is amplified."

Just a few hours later, Tajani, who is also deputy prime minister in the Meloni government, canceled a planned visit to Paris to meet his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna.

“The offenses against the Government of Italy pronounced by Minister Gérald Darmanin are unacceptable.

This is not the spirit in which we must face common European challenges, ”he lamented on Twitter.

“I hope to receive you soon in Paris”

Following Darmanin's statements, the French Foreign Minister hastened to call her Italian counterpart and in a tweet stressed that the relationship between the two countries is based on "mutual respect."

And she added: "I hope to receive you soon in Paris."

In a statement, the French ministry has appealed to the "spirit of solidarity" and has insisted that the French government wants to work with Italy to deal with the increase in migratory flows.

The Paris statement is not enough, Tajani said this Friday in an interview with the newspaper

and

He has demanded that the French minister present him with an apology for statements described as "gratuitous and vulgar insult".

The new chapter of tensions between the two countries is the most serious since the fall of 2022, when Italy refused to disembark the 234 migrants who were aboard the

humanitarian ship , of the French NGO SOS Méditerranée.

Paris finally agreed to allow the ship to dock at the military port of Toulon, but its decision earned it a wave of criticism from the right and the extreme right.

The new pulse threatens to open a new rift between the two governments.

The spokesman for the French Executive, Olivier Véran, has tried to defuse the controversy.

"There was no desire to ostracize Italy," he said in an interview with CNEWS.

Migratory pressure at the border

Darmanin's controversial statements came the day after the visit of Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Regroupment party, to Menton, in the south of France.

The right hand of Marine Le Pen took advantage of the trip to this border city with Italy to denounce the "laxity" of the French Executive, days after the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, announced the mobilization of 150 additional police officers in the region and the creation of a border force to expand controls in the face of migratory pressure.

For Bardella, however, the plan is "a totally derisory reinforcement."

The leader accused the French president and the interior minister of showing "impotence and indifference."

The French government postponed last week the debate on an immigration law due to the convulsive moment that the country is experiencing after the promulgation of the unpopular pension reform and due to the lack of parliamentary support.

Without a majority in the National Assembly, the Executive would need the support of the conservative Republican party to approve the immigration law, but it considers it too permissive.

In addition, its leader, Éric Ciotti, regretted on Thursday what he called a "useless and counterproductive attack" by the Minister of the Interior against the Italian Executive.

Italy has been the main gateway for migrants who have reached Europe irregularly in recent months.

More than 40,000 people have landed in the country since January, according to the World Organization for Migration.

During the same period last year, there were 11,200, according to the same source.

To deal with the situation, the government headed by the far-right Meloni decided to decree a state of emergency on April 11 for a period of six months.

After arriving in Italy, a part of the migrants tries to cross into France, according to the French authorities.

Didier Leschi, the director of the French Immigration and Integration Office, assured this Friday on the France Info station that attempts to cross the border through the Alps have increased.

Follow all the international information on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber