French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has accused Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of incompetence in migration policy. In a radio interview on Thursday, he also drew parallels between Meloni and French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani subsequently canceled his planned trip to Paris. The French Interior Minister’s comments were “unacceptable” and the French government’s apologies were “lukewarm” and “insufficient”.
According to Darmanin, French government spokesman Olivier Véran said on Friday that the interior minister had no intention of attacking Italy. They will “continue to work with the Italians on migration issues.” The French foreign ministry said the meeting between Tajani and his counterpart Catherine Colonna could hopefully be rescheduled soon.
“A Barrage of Insults”
“This attack leaves me stunned, it is a bolt from the blue, a deluge of insults,” Tajani said in an interview with the Milan daily Corriere della Sera (Friday edition). “If our interior minister (Matteo Piantedosi, ed.) had said similar things about France and its government, the consequences would have been very serious (…)”
Since the beginning of the year, about 42,000 people have arrived in Italy after traveling across the Mediterranean. That is four times as many as in the same period last year. A Guinean woman died in the waters off Lampedusa on Friday. The boat she was traveling on had capsized. 46 other people were rescued by the Coast Guard and brought ashore. Among them are twelve women and five minors.
450 euros for crossing
The migrants come from Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast (Ivory Coast), Guinea, Gambia, Mali and Senegal. They reported that they departed from Sfax in Tunisia and paid about 450 euros per person for the crossing. The boat capsized when, upon seeing the Coast Guard patrol boat, people all stood up and called for help.
Source: Krone
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