Rome, 10 May 2023 – France and Italy still at loggerheads on the matter migrants. These are the words of the general secretary of the Emmanuel Macron’s party, Stephane Sejournereported by Le Figaro to light the fuse: the Italian government “makes an unjust, inhuman policy and ineffective on clandestine immigration, made up of demagoguery. We must expose their incompetence and their impotence”. The newspaper underlines that the decisive tone of the president of Renaissance is due to the tensions on the border between Italy and France where the flows of migrants from Ventimiglia to Menton are allegedly intensifying, Le Figaro writes: “More and more illegal immigrants since, since the beginning of the year, over 42,000 people have arrived in Italy, against 11,000 in the same period last year”.
The reactions were not long in coming and the first was Matthew Salvini on Twitter. The deputy premier wrote: “Unacceptable and offensive tones. France cannot give lessons to anyone. Show respect to the Italian government”. While Raffaele Fitto, minister for European affairs, speaks of “nervousness about growing internal political concerns” and of an attack “lacking valid political arguments and frightened by the judgment of his fellow citizens” by Séjourné. And while Emmanuel Macron, like last week, does not make himself heard, not even with Giorgia Meloniand does not take a position, it is the prime minister herself who clarifies that perhaps there is something else behind the attack.
Giorgia Meloni in Prague
The head of government, on a mission to Prague for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Petr Fiala, regarding those who asked her about the repeated attacks by the French government, stated: “I believe that use the policies of other governments to settle internal accounts, it doesn’t seem to me an ideal thing in terms of politics and etiquette, but everyone makes the choices they want to make”. Knowing that behind the accusations of Darmanin and Séjourné there is a desire to hit his ally Marine Le Pen, dangerous for Macron given the growing consensus at home.
While in Prague Fiala proved to be a true ally of Meloni, fully embracing our requests in Brussels: “Italy is the country most affected by migratory phenomena and we support the proposals brought to Europe by Prime Minister Meloni: we must find quick and clear solutions because the situation is worrying, the problem should not be solved when the migrants arrive but before. We have to fight against the traffickers because they take advantage of the situation, and during our presidency we supported the reform of the migration stability pact”. Meloni then said closed the controversy: “I guess that I will see Macron in the next few days” with the G7 and the Council of Europe on the agenda, “there will be many opportunities. I don’t know that there are bilateral problems between Italy and France“. Then he reiterated: “These statements so aggressive in favor of the camera I think they speak to French public opinion, I’m not worried”. And she added at the insistence of the media: “What’s happening with Paris? I have no news so I have to assume they are discussions related to internal politics. It’s the only sensible explanation for what’s going on. I don’t think it is very profitable to use international relations to solve one’s own internal political problems, then everyone makes the choices they want to make. I have no news I continue to do my job serenely”.