Giorgia Meloni’s Italy no longer plays “the game of nationalism” in the management of migratory flows, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin welcomed Thursday, thus marking a notable change of tone after months of tensions between Paris and Rome on this issue.
While recent arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa have caused a European crisis, Mr. Darmanin went to Rome on Monday, notably to offer his Italian counterpart France’s help in controlling external borders. Italian islands, the first gateway to Europe via the Mediterranean.
Asked on the BFMTV channel about the fate of the nearly 230 migrants disembarked last year for the first time in France by the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, at the end of a diplomatic standoff with Italy which refused them, the minister of the Interior responded: “What is certain is that the Ocean Viking was the moment when Italy refused a European solution.”
“From now on Italy, and we must be happy about this, is not playing the game of nationalism, but is playing the European game. And the solution is European,” he declared.
Comments which mark a radical change in tone towards the Italian neighbor.
In May, a diatribe by Gérald Darmanin directed against the head of the Italian government, at the head of a right-wing and far-right coalition, caused a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. He then affirmed that Giorgia Meloni was “incapable of resolving the migration problems on which she was elected”.
Concerning the fate of the people who arrived last week in Lampedusa, France “obviously agrees to take (its) share of the burden”, provided that the people concerned are eligible for refugee status, he repeated.
The Minister of the Interior also indicated that France had offered its help to Italy to apply in advance a provision of the migration pact currently under discussion in Brussels, which allows the submission of an asylum application directly to the border.
“Foreigners who arrive on our soil must have their asylum application processed within two weeks at the borders. (…) We have provided that States can anticipate the vote of the European Parliament on a voluntary basis. France did it. And we asked Italy to do it,” he added.
Over three days last week, nearly 8,500 people landed in Lampedusa, located 150 km from the Tunisian coast, more than the total population of the island, generating a saturation of reception capacities and a political crisis.