For his first international meeting, the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, rallied on the migration issue in the approach of the far-right Italian government of Giorgia Meloni, turning the page on a relationship damaged by this file under the previous French legislature.
Friday October 4, on the occasion of the G7 summit of interior ministers, chaired by Italy, which was held in Campania, he notably announced with his counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, the signing of a declaration of intention on the creation of a Franco-Italian operational research unit. Dedicated to the exchange of information on the “migrant smuggling”this new entity should settle in Ventimiglia. Near the French border, the Italian city and its surroundings have been a place of passage for migrants, pushbacks and tensions since Paris reestablished controls there in 2015.
More broadly, France’s position is close to M’s method.me Meloni, with the reinforced outsourcing of border control on the southern shore of the Mediterranean through agreements with countries of transit and departure. Mr. Retailleau also affirmed, during the plenary session on migration, that Italy had played a pioneering role in this regard with which France now intended to join.
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Only the result counts
The Italian approach, presented as obeying the principle of “give and take” implies obtaining a strengthening of the repression of irregular migration in exchange for economic agreements. In this regard, the pact signed between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia in July 2023 serves as a model. This is despite serious human rights violations against migrants that have been documented in the country. Seen from European capitals, only the result counts: flows fell by 61% on the central Mediterranean migration route during the first six months of 2024 according to figures from Frontex, the European border guard agency.
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On Friday, Italy also included the Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as well as the Algerian and Libyan interior ministers in the meeting devoted to migration. Organized in a luxurious wedding salon with swimming pool in the town of Mirabella Eclano, in the Irpinia region, where Mr. Piantedosi is from, the summit gave the host country the opportunity to promote an approach to migration issues which concentrates most of the efforts led by Giorgia Meloni in terms of foreign policy.
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