Le Pen slams Meloni’s migration ‘concessions’ to the EU

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen criticised on Thursday (15 June) the EU’s immigration policy and that of Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who she accused of making “concessions” to Brussels in exchange for post-COVID recovery funds.

Questioned on French radio broadcaster FranceInfo about the European Union’s migration policy, following the sinking of a migrant ship off the coast of Greece, Le Pen said that further tragedies could be expected “if we don’t stop this policy” which “encourages people to take considerable risks”.

“The NGOs are accomplices of the smugglers”, she declared, using words similar to those used in the past by Meloni.

Regarding the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, on which EU countries reached a common position last Thursday, Le Pen, the leader of the opposition Rassemblement National, complained that EU states are being deprived of their decision-making power.

“It is the NGOs that will determine immigration policy under the control of the European Union. Nations will no longer have a say,” Le Pen declared.

Asked whether the head of the Italian government had done a U-turn on migration, after promising a naval blockade in her election campaign, Le Pen answered that “it’s all a question of political will”.

“Italy’s freedom of action is also hampered by its budgetary situation”, she explained.

According to Le Pen, the Italian migration situation “means that concessions are being made to the European Union [by the Italian government] because the recovery plan promised to Italy is absolutely considerable”.

Meloni’s government is ideologically close to Le Pen and includes Matteo Salvini’s Lega, an ally of the Rassemblement National. Despite the harsh electoral rhetoric on migration, the government in Rome supported the agreement on the Asylum and Migration Pact, which sets out new rules for the relocation of migrants.

According to Le Pen, it is in the interest of Italy and Meloni to relocate migrants, but for France, “our interest is to say ‘no, there is no question of forcing us to accept migrants’”.

When the European Parliament voted on the Asylum and Migration pact on 20 April, far-right EU lawmakers from France and Italy did not take the same position. Le Pen’s Rassemblement National voted against the text, while the Italians of Salvini’s Lega and Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia supported it.

Ocean Viking: The first real diplomatic crisis between France and Italy?

France denounced on Thursday (10 November) Italy’s “incomprehensible and unacceptable” attitude in refusing to welcome the migrants on board the Ocean Viking ship, at sea for more than 15 days, creating the first diplomatic crisis between the new governments of the two countries.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Benjamin Fox]