Four years after the crisisAquariusa boat of migrants in distress whose fate had inflamed relations between Italy and France, Paris and Rome are once again torn apart on the migration issue against a backdrop of political ulterior motives.
The standoff is tied around theocean vikinghumanitarian ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée blocked at sea with 234 migrants on board and that Rome refuses to let dock, an attitude deemed “unacceptable” by Paris.
If the scenario looks exactly like the case of theAquariusa former ship of SOS Méditerranée, which ended up docking in Spain after an epic lasting several days and a diplomatic crisis between Italy and France, the context is different this time.
The crisis comes barely three weeks after the formation of Italy’s most right-wing post-war government, dominated by Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist party, Fratelli d’Italia, which de facto ended a period of golden age marked by the friendship between Emmanuel Macron and former Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Ms. Meloni’s coalition notably includes Matteo Salvini’s League, a party mainly built on anti-migrant rhetoric. Current Minister of Transport, Mr. Salvini is being prosecuted for having blocked migrants at sea in 2019 when he was Minister of the Interior.
The crisis ofocean viking “first concerns the internal balances of the Meloni government”, analyzes Gilles Gressani, director of the review The Great Continentbelieving that Salvini’s League wants to “survive the hegemonic temptations of Meloni and give signs to its electorate”.
On the French side, the crisis gives Paris the opportunity to position itself in a “humanist” register, possibly welcoming the ship – a hypothesis presented as acquired by Italy, but not confirmed by France – and by castigating the “behaviour unacceptable” from Rome, “contrary to the law of the sea and to the spirit of European solidarity”.
“Italy wants to appear as hard and inflexible, France as humanist. It serves everyone’s interests, ”analyzes Mr. Gressani, noting that the President of the Italian Council has not spoken in person so far and “lets the tough talk”.
Jean-Pierre Darnis, professor at the University of Nice and in Rome, envisages the possibility of a “pragmatic agreement”: the reception of the ship in France, “which would be appreciated and would dismantle some of the anti-French feeling in Italy “.
European solidarity
Italy, which has long been on the front line of migrant arrivals, welcomes tens of thousands of people each year who have undertaken the Mediterranean crossing, the deadliest in the world.
She regularly criticizes the lack of European solidarity. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani made it clear on Wednesday that the current crisis was a message to Europe and that his government would raise the issue at a Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) the week before. next.
“France is aware of the difficulties for the countries of first reception. We understand the Italians, it’s a subject we have had with them for several years, but we are no longer in 2018, things have changed, ”insists a French source familiar with the matter.
“Today there are more countries in a situation of first reception,” he says, citing Latvia for Belarusian refugees and Poland for Ukrainians. “And at the institutional level, the situation is not blocked as in 2018, we have the pact on migration”, adds this source.
Under the French presidency of the European Union (EU), the Ministers in charge of Migration created a voluntary mechanism for relocation from the countries of first reception to other European countries. But in September, Greece, another country on the front line, deplored the “lack of will” of its partners.
“It is a mechanism that can be improved, but it exists and provides for commitments of solidarity with each other”, insists the French source.
Which also tends to minimize the Franco-Italian crisis: the Meloni government “has just arrived, the teams are not all set up yet, we are looking for channels of discussion… This should get under way, the important thing is to continue to to talk to “.
“There is no real interest in a divorce,” adds Mr. Darnis.
On Wednesday, the European Commission called for the “immediate disembarkation at the nearest safe port” of all Ocean Viking migrants, “to avoid a humanitarian tragedy”.