Italy challenges Macron over migration

BERLIN: Italy’s new populist interior minister says French President Emmanuel Macron should take migrants into his home.
Matteo Salvini reacted to Macron’s assertion Tuesday in Rome, where the French leader met with Pope Francis, that there isn’t any migration crisis.
Salvini says, if that’s the case, “Macron should open the doors of his own home to the 9,000 migrants France was committed to taking from Italy” under European Union accords.
By refusing to allow private rescue boats to dock in Italy, Salvini is challenging EU partners to take more migrants.
Salvini said: “It’s too easy to take a photo with the pope without respecting the accords and driving back women and children at the borders.” Salvini referred to France’s refusal to let migrants cross the border from Italy.
He adds: “French arrogance is no longer fashionable in Italy.”
French President Emmanuel Macron says he had a “useful” meeting with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte about the migrant problem.
The meeting, in Rome Monday evening, hadn’t been publicized, since Macron had come officially only for talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
But Macron told reporters Tuesday evening that with Conte he discussed “how to respond in the most efficient manner” to the issue of migratory flows, a problem which has sharply divided the European Union.
Macron and Conte also discussed eurozone issues, amid a rise of populist sentiment calling the euro currency’s future into question. Conte’s government is a coalition of the euroskeptic 5-Star Movement and League parties.
Political pressures on EU-member governments over migrants loom large over this week’s key European Council meeting.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service says it has picked up just over 400 people from the Mediterranean in a day as migrants hasten to reach Spain from North Africa while the weather remains fair.
Monday’s rescues bring the total number of rescued migrants to around 1,800 in four days of calm seas.
Authorities say 273 people were rescued from 15 boats crossing the Strait of Gibraltar — the shortest route between the African and European continents in the western Mediterranean.
Also Monday, 132 people were pulled from three boats slightly to the east, in the area of Alboran island, which lies about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Moroccan coast and 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of the Spanish province of Almeria.