The standoff between Italy and France continues over the Ocean Viking ship, which has been carrying 234 migrants who have survived for 18 days. On Tuesday night, the newly elected President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, welcomed France’s decision to open its doors to the ship. However, France has never confirmed the reception of the Ocean Viking in one of its ports.
The French government then denounced on Tuesday night the “unacceptable behavior” of the Italian authorities who refused to allow the ship to dock.
The attitude of the Italian authorities is “contrary to the law of the sea and the spirit of European solidarity,” a French government source told BFMTV.
Is a diplomatic crisis looming?
“We expect something more from a country that is today the first beneficiary of the European solidarity mechanism,” added this source.
“We did not wait for the Meloni government to put European solidarity in motion in the management of migratory flows,” a source from the Ministry of the Interior told BFMTV.
Statements that point to a diplomatic crisis looming between Rome and Paris, a few weeks after the victory of Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist party in the parliamentary elections.
Source: BFM TV
