Tajani cancels a visit to Paris after criticizing Meloni over her handling of immigration

Italy and France clashed again this Thursday over immigration after criticism from the French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, which pushed the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajanito cancel the trip to Paris in protest.

Darmanin, known for his animosity towards the French far-right and its leader Marine Le Pen, angered the government of Giorgia Meloni by criticizing its management of migration, particularly the situation in the border town of Menton, which has seen a high pressure of immigrants arriving from Italy. “Meloni is like Le Pen. She was elected because she promised that we would see what we would see and in the end what we see is that [el problema migratorio] It does not stop, but intensifies because Italy is experiencing a serious migration crisis”, says Efe from the RMC station. And he insisted that the Italian leader “She is not capable of solving the immigration problem for which she was elected”.

His words enraged Tajani, who canceled a bilateral meeting scheduled for this Thursday afternoon in Paris with his counterpart, Catherine Colonna. “Insults against the Government and Italy uttered by Darmanin are unacceptable. This is not the spirit in which common European challenges should be faced,” he tweeted. Second Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also spoke out, expressing his “pride” to be a “friend” of Le Pen.

Meeting with Haftar

This new clash coincides with the meeting this Thursday in Rome between Meloni and The Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an ally of the parallel government set up in eastern Libya to deal with “unprecedented” migration flows arriving in Italy from Africa and a roadmap for expected elections in the failed post-Gaddafi state.

Meloni received Haftar in the Chigi Palace, the seat of the Government, for a private meeting that lasted about two hours, reports the Rai News network. A day earlier, the Libyan army met with Tajani, who already in March requested the mediation of the Egyptian president. Abdelfattah al-Sisi, Haftar’s main support is to stop the flow of migration that starts from the shores of the historical region of Cyrenaica, in the northeast of that African country.

Italy is special interested in the stabilization of Libya. Haftar praised Meloni for his support for the UN’s attempt to revive the electoral process, currently paralyzed the conflict between the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and the parallel authorities in Tobruk, with the support of the Marshal’s forces.