Rome, 5 May 2023 (GNP): On Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled his planned Paris trip in response to the French interior minister’s remarks, which were harshly critical of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s handling of unlawful immigration.
On Thursday afternoon, Tajani tweeted, “I will not go to Paris for the planned meeting” with Catherine Colonna, the French foreign minister. The insulting remarks directed at Italy and the [Italian] government by Gerald Darmanin are intolerable. Common European issues shouldn’t be met with this attitude, he said.
Gerald Darmanin had earlier said on a radio network that Meloni was “unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected” and accused her of “lying” to voters about her ability to end a crisis over an increase in boat migrants.
The news of his remarks broke as Tajani was getting ready for his Paris trip to meet with his French counterpart. The visit was intended, in part, to mend strained ties between the two European Union member states.
While France quickly released a statement convincing Rome of its willingness to collaborate closely with Italy, it was insufficient to convince Tajani to pursue his Paris trip.
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Meloni came to power last year on an agenda to increase deportations and end the flow of migrants reaching Italian ports using NGO-operated boats.
Under her leadership, the number of migrants arriving on Italian shores has almost quadrupled despite her government’s efforts to restrict the operations of these ships, which she refers to as a “ferry service,” and fine their owners.
In comparison to 11,220 in the same period in 2022, more than 42,400 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year. In April, the Italian government issued a six-month state of emergency in response to this influx and started building additional shelters.
Thousands of migrants who were refused entry into Italian ports by NGO ships have been reluctantly admitted by France. Colonna warned in November that there would be “consequences” if Meloni’s administration persisted in forbidding migrant ships from docking, adding that France was only accepting the boats “because of Italy’s stubborn refusal and lack of humanity.”
A month ago, the conflict over the NGO ships forced France to back out of a pact wherein it promised to accept some 3,500 refugees who were being temporarily accepted in Italy.
