Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that he had canceled his scheduled trip to France to meet with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, due to the French interior minister's criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2023) Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that he had canceled his scheduled trip to France to meet with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, due to the French interior minister's criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said earlier in the day that Meloni is incapable of solving Italy's illegal migration problems, adding that the country experiences a "very serious" migration crisis.
"I will not go to Paris for the planned meeting with (French Foreign Minister Catherine) Colonna. The offenses to the (Italian) government and to Italy pronounced by Darmanin are unacceptable. This is not the spirit in which common European challenges should be tackled," he twitted.
Darmanin added that he supports France's experimental mission to strengthen controls on the French-Italian border. France has to place migration control checkpoints directly on the border with Italy, for which it needs "an immigration law, quick and harsh," he added.
The previous diplomatic scandal between Italy and France took place in November 2022, when Italy refused to allow the docking of the Ocean Viking, French NGO SOS Mediterranee's ship, with 234 migrants on board, who had been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. Many refugees had reportedly been at sea for over two weeks. The ship finally docked in the French port of Toulon.
France criticized Rome's refusal as "selfish" and "unacceptable." Meloni, in turn, said that it was unfair that most of migrants that travel via the Mediterranean Sea come to Italian ports.
