The head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, denounced on Friday an “aggressive, incomprehensible and unjustified French reaction”, as Paris announced retaliatory measures against Rome, which refused to let the Ocean Viking ship carrying immigrants dock, forcing to France to welcome him.
“I was very marked by the aggressive reaction of the French government, which is incomprehensible and unjustified,” he told reporters.
However, he assured that he wanted to find “a European solution” to the migration issue. “It is not smart to argue with France, Spain, Greece, Malta or other countries. I want to find a common solution,” she said.
The Ocean Viking ship with 230 migrants on board arrived at the port of Toulon in southern France on Friday, and “a third” of the migrant passengers will be “relocated” to France, announced Paris, which criticized the “incomprehensible option” of Italy. to accept the humanitarian ship. By way of protest, France has decided to suspend “with immediate effect” the reception planned for this summer of 3,500 refugees who are currently in Italy.
“something’s wrong”
France “will also draw the consequences” of the Italian attitude on the other aspects of its “bilateral relationship”, said the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Giorgia Meloni, for her part, took up the justifications put forward the day before by her Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, who had replied to his French counterpart that Italy had welcomed nearly 90,000 immigrants this year, while the European countries that they had promised to help and care for 8,000 people and had finally taken in only 117.
“Something is not working” in the European management of immigrants, estimated the president of the Italian Council, arguing that “it is not written in any agreement” that Italy should be “the only possible port of disembarkation in the Mediterranean.” Giorgia Meloni noted that “on the same day” the dispute over the Ocean Viking ship began, Italy “received 600 migrants on its shores.”
Source: BFM TV
