The French government has behaved hypocritically towards Italy over the current migration-linked diplomatic crisis, despite refusing to allow the Aquarius disembarkation in 2018, Marine Le Pen told Corriere della Sera.
The leader of the Rassemblement National said that “the French government’s accusations against Italy are deeply unfair and reveal a rejection of democracy” in an interview published on Wednesday.
Last Thursday, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reproached Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government for its lack of humanity and professionalism. This led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries, which Italian President Sergio Mattarella and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to resolve earlier this week.
“By refusing to disembark the Ocean Viking, the government in Rome is only respecting the will of the Italian people,” said the former far-right presidential candidate.
As for the French government, Le Pen considers it “hypocritical”, as it disembarked the Ocean Viking citing “humanitarian reasons,” while “in 2018, the Aquarius ship was refused by France and was forced to sail to Valencia.”
According to Le Pen, the French government’s behaviour is primarily explained by domestic political issues. Macron “has been very criticised on the left for having met Meloni in Rome immediately, he wants to make amends,” she said. The “agitation of our government” is, in this respect, “cinema”.
Asked by Corriere about the role of NGOs, Le Pen considers them “accomplices of the smugglers.”
The NGO ships that rescue shipwrecked migrants should instead disembark in Algeria or Tunisia, she explained, denouncing the French and European “contempt” for considering that their ports are not safe for migrants.
Le Pen also said that “the French government is in favour of immigration and does not want to say so,” while “the only truly humanitarian policy [would be] a policy of firmness.”
Indeed, she explained, “European countries have nothing to offer to those who arrive.”
Asked whether the emphasis on national interest by European nationalist parties was not, in fact, counterproductive, Le Pen said that “there is no inconsistency […]. I don’t want to accept migrants in my country, and I don’t want to impose them on others either.”
“The European Union cannot impose migrants on people who do not want them,” she added.
(Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr)
Source: euractiv.com
