The pressure of the Italian government on the Maltese one continues to open ports to the Lifeline which has 242 migrants on board. To this day it still has the "transponder" turned off and it is not possible to understand where it can be. A tweet launched by the crew suggests that the Lifeline is in Maltese territorial waters. After this revelation, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Danilo Toninelli told Tgcom24: "if it does not go to the port of Malta, which it should do out of a sense of humanity and respect for the law of the sea, it will be immediately seized". "Malta tells falsehoods", adds the minister when the authorities of the island deny having received a formal request to open the ports: "He had an official request from Frontex, which sent this communication to Malta which is sufficient for the opening of the port ". Previously, the minister had emphasized: “We are following the case of the Lifeline ship with the utmost attention and concern. This ship does not have the technical characteristics to transport so many asylum seekers. According to news of these hours, even if we do not have confirmation, the ship should be in Maltese waters: in this case the responsibility for opening a port for the safety of people on board would lie with Malta. Secondly, the discourse of legality: the ship claims to fly the Dutch flag correctly, the Netherlands denies. The investigation will go on, but first the rescue of the people on board ”.
The minister and leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini, however, harshly criticized Macron's statements during an electoral rally in Marina di Massa. “Macron is not gathering much sympathy: he said that anyone who does not open ports to migrants is a leper populist. He is a polite young gentleman, who probably had exceeded in champagne ”. “Macron in Ventimiglia has deployed the police to repel immigrants, and he has every right to do so, but at least he doesn't mind the Italians, who have landed 650.000 immigrants in recent years. If you want the next 10 boats that arrive we will send them to Marseille ”. The other political leader of the yellow-green government Luigi Di Maio commented on Macron's unhappy sentences. “From Macron's decomposed interventions, true leprosy is the EU hypocrisy“ I'm seeing things at a European level that are unheard of, including the behavior of heads of state. The President of the French Republic spoke of good neighborly relations when we were silent and now he attacks us every other day ”.
Spain, which is directly interested in the migratory phenomenon, is also beginning to take its first steps in foreign policy. The Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell has initiated contacts with Malta, France and Italy to coordinate the “Lifeline” aid. The Spanish agency Europa Press writes it. Malta was contacted for any immediate humanitarian aid, while Paris "showed great empathy and solidarity with Spain in the Aquarius affair", as explained by the spokesman for the Spanish government, Isabel Celaà. Finally, the spokeswoman recalled that any decision on the matter remains in the hands of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who will meet the French President Emmanuel Macrona Paris tomorrow to participate in the summit on migrants in Brussels on Sunday. Sanchez is working "for an axis formed by Spain, France and Germany" to tackle the migration issue, "which is actually part of the European political agenda", concluded Celaà.
Sunday's informal summit in Brussels promises to be under high tension, given the developments in the Lifeline affair in the last few hours. Many countries will join. Even Italy, after Angela Merkel's assurance to Giuseppe Conte, not to bring a pre-packaged document to the table, should participate in the important summit, except for last-minute second thoughts.
Sixteen European leaders will participate in Sunday's meeting in Brussels dedicated to the search for a solution to the migrant crisis that supports countries, such as Italy, which face the bulk of arrivals. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called the meeting when new rifts emerged in Europe after Italy and Greece, grappling with the wave of migrants, asked EU partners to share the burden. "We started with a group of eight," commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said. "We are now 16 countries that have indicated their interest in participating in the informal meeting". The eight new countries are Belgium, Holland, Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg. In recent days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Maltese colleague Joseph Muscat have all confirmed their presence. But there should also be the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who initially said he would not participate, as well as the Greek Alexis Tsipras, the Austrian Sebastian Kurz, who is about to assume the rotating presidency of the EU and the Bulgarian Boiko Borisov, who is about to close his term of office. The heads of the Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Slovak governments yesterday announced a boycott of the summit. Winterstein said the meeting is open to everyone, but no one is required to attend. The spokesman added that no decisions will be made and that a press conference is not scheduled, although leaders will be able to comment by leaving the summit. A summit of the Twenty-eight is scheduled next Thursday, which will have the reform of the reception system for asylum seekers, under pressure since 2015, when the migrant crisis exploded.
The tension between France and Italy is heightened by the visit, scheduled for next week, by Emmanuel Macron by the Pope to the Vatican. He will not meet with any representative of the Italian government. “I am going to the Vatican State and not to Italy”, the words of the French president according to a statement from the Elysée.