1. The French fit of pique

On Thursday French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had slammed Italy’s stance as “incomprehensible”, saying the Ocean Viking “is located without any doubt in Italy’s search and rescue zone”.

He warned of “severe consequences” for Italy’s bilateral relations with France and the EU as a whole, adding that France had acted according to its “humanitarian duty”, but the migrants were Italy’s responsibility under EU rules. He made it clear the French move was an “exceptional” measure that would not be repeated.

A third of the migrant passengers will be accepted by France. The bulk of the remainder will be sent to Germany. The French Home Secretary went on to slam the Italian authorities for “making the migrants wait at sea for 15 days”, announcing that France has now suspended plans to take in 3,500 refugees currently in Italy. He then called on all participants in the EU's migrant-relocation mechanism to adopt similar measures. Darmanin called on "Germany in particular" to suspend the relocation of asylum seekers from Italy. Germany has remained ominously silent.

The French Secretary of State for EU Affairs, Laurence Bonne, told French media that trust with Rome had broken down following the row:-

"The current Italian government has not respected the mechanism which it had committed to. There was a unilateral decision that put lives in danger and that, moreover, does not comply with international law."

2. Yesterday the Italians came back fighting

3. Naturally the EU Commission sided with France

“The European Commission calls for the immediate disembarkation, at the nearest place of safety, of all persons rescued and who are on board the Ocean Viking.”

- EU Commission statement, Wed 09 Nov 2022

On Wednesday the “nearest place of safety” was of course Italy.

Observations

The UK isn’t the only country finding the French impossible to deal with over boat migrants

In the north, France has let over 40,000 boat migrants depart its shores so far this year – all heading for the UK’s southern coast. In the south of its country, it has failed to show any solidarity with its EU neighbour Italy which is dealing with an influx even greater than that of the United Kingdom.

The difference between Italy’s boat migrants and those entering the UK

There is of course a key difference between the boat migrants landing in Italy and those landing in the UK. Many of Italy’s boat migrants are coming from locations which might not be deemed ‘safe countries’.

By contrast, all of the UK’s boat migrants are coming from the safe country of France, having passed though several other safe EU countries to get to the French coast.

One thing the UK and Italy have in common

It is probably fair to say that the British and Italian publics both consider the French government as being deeply unhelpful when it comes to boat migrants.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new right-wing Prime Minister, came out all guns blazing against the French yesterday. By contrast, the UK seems set to do yet another deal and throw another £50m at the French government for it to patrol its own beaches.

Facts4EU.Org needs you today

We are a 'not for profit' team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

We badly need more of our thousands of readers to become members, to support this work. Could this be you, today? Maybe you've been thinking about it, but just haven't got around to doing it? If so, let us reassure you. It's quick and easy and we use two highly secure payment providers. And we do NOT ask you for further support if you pay once - we just hope that you keep supporting us. Your membership stays anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

Please don't assume that other people will keep us going - we don't receive enough to survive and we need your help today. Could you help us?

Most of our readers are well-informed and appreciate our fact-based articles, presented in a way you won't see anywhere else. We have far more to do in researching, publishing, campaigning and lobbying Parliament than we have in terms of the financial resources to fulfil these tasks. We badly need funding to continue - we rely 100% on public contributions from readers like you.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please join now. It’s quick, secure, and confidential, and you can use one of the links below or you can use our Support page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 24 hours. Thank you for reading this.