Posted on 06/24/2018 4:30:35 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Italy's two deputy prime ministers accused French President Emmanuel Macron of being "arrogant" and said that France risked becoming Italy's "No1 enemy".
Writing on his Facebook page, Luigi Di Maio said: "Italy indeed faces a migration emergency and it's partly because France keeps pushing back people at the border. Macron risks making his country Italy's No.1 enemy on this emergency."
The row came as the leaders of 16 European countries travel to Brussels for a highly unusual and hastily arranged meeting on migration.
The migration issue has caused renewed and deep divisions between European governments and even within national coalitions.
The latest crisis was brought into focus both by a political crisis in Germany and after the new Italian government turned away a boat packed with 630 migrants rescued in dinghies off the coast of Libya 10 days ago.
The Aquarius was rejected a safe port to dock in by the Italians and the Maltese. It eventually docked in the Spanish port of Valencia on Sunday.
But an identical situation is unfolding again with 339 people rescued over the past few days off Libya currently in limbo on two vessels in the Mediterranean.
Italy and Malta have both refused to allow a Dutch-flagged charity rescue ship called Lifeline and a merchant ship operated by Maersk Line from docking.
Figures released this week by Eurostat show that there were 739,000 asylum applications made across the EU in 2017. That represents a 44% drop on the previous year.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Agreed
All of the EU needs to put a stop to the invaders. But they won’t.
Italy does not want migrants and supports setting up refugee camps in the places of origin. France supports Germany and Merkel’s EU policy to accept illegal migrants. France are the hypocrites because they know Italy is the first port of entry and will have to deal with them, meanwhile closing off their own border. Thankfully, Italy’s new government has begun denying access to their ports and seizing ships of those that do make it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.