Bruno Retailleau, candidate for the presidency of LR, asked on Sunday to stop “moral lessons” from Italy, which refused to welcome the ship Ocean Viking and its 230 migrants, while the number 1 of the RN Jordan Bardella castigates SOS Méditerranée, an NGO “which does politics”.
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told the Parisian Sunday that “we must remind Rome of its duty of humanity”.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had previously criticized “a very inhuman Italy”.
But for Bruno Retailleau, “these moral lessons are infuriating”.
“Since the beginning of the year, Italy, which is one of the countries of first entry, has received 90,000 migrants. Europe was to take care of 8,000 and 117 were taken back “only, he stressed to Cnews-Europe 1-Les Echos.
Bruno Retailleau candidate for the presidency of the Les Républicains party
The head of the far-right Italian government Giorgia Meloni had denounced a French reaction “aggressive, incomprehensible and unjustified”.
On Friday, an ambulance boat from the NGO SOS Méditerranée operating off the coast of Libya landed survivors in France, a first. An exceptional welcome, out of “duty of humanity”, according to Gérald Darmanin.
For the boss of the LR senators, “the only lesson in humanity that we can do is firmness”. Because with the reception of the Ocean Viking at the port of Toulon on Friday, “it’s the opening of Pandora’s box”.
“The smugglers, the traffickers of human beings, these mafias, with the support of the NGOs, will know that France has bent and that it will bend”, supported the elected representative of Vendée.
The candidate for the presidency of the party in December has a series of proposals, such as “taking up a standoff with the countries of origin” to enforce the obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) and “stopping the suction pumps” of the family reunification and “free care for illegal immigrants”.
He calls for a referendum because “only the people will have the courage to impose courageous measures”. In particular, this would involve re-establishing the offense of illegal residence and presuming of age for unaccompanied minors who do not accept a bone test.
On the far right, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella attacked SOS Méditerranée, described as “a far-left NGO” which “does politics” with the boat Ocean Viking.
“I think that we should cut public subsidies to SOS Méditerranée and withdraw the approval which allows SOS Méditerranée to intervene in schools”, he launched on France 3, ensuring that there was a “ objective complicity between far-left NGOs and the mafia of smugglers”.
According to the SOS Méditerranée website, the NGO, “civil association for rescue at sea”, is 89% financed by private donations. On the subsidy side, it mentions around 80 “solidarity communities” in France, municipalities, departments and regions.