France has signed a joint cooperation deal with Italy aimed at fighting illegal immigration, marking a sharp turn for Paris on the issue.
Bruno Retailleau, the new interior minister in France, had proposed the creation of an “operational research unit” between Italy and France in early October despite his country having initially attacked Rome for its clampdown on illegal arrivals.
Italy formally accepted the offer on the afternoon of October 4, with the French minister uploading him signing the deal alongside his Italian counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, on the sidelines of the G7 Interior Ministers summit in Campania.
Entretien avec mon homologue italien Matteo Piantedosi lors du #G7 des ministres de l’Intérieur. Nous nous félicitons de l’accord signé pour une unité franco-italienne contre les filières de passeurs.
Nous œuvrons aussi pour une adoption rapide du règlement européen sur les… pic.twitter.com/pFoqMpVBcc
— Bruno Retailleau (@BrunoRetailleau) October 4, 2024
The collaboration aims to be operational in 2025 and part of a new office to combat the smuggling of migrants. It will consist of law enforcement officers and investigators from both France and Italy specialising in the fight against illegal immigration.
The prime objective of the unit will be the identification of migrants and smuggler networks. It will also work on the collection and analysis of criminal intelligence data.
MELONI on fire: This is for those who were claiming the other day that France was on fire because of migrants when they have wreaked havoc in Africa, following invasions, deadly exploitation and colonialism. Many countries still cannot print their own currencies in Africa pic.twitter.com/lxPWMR3DNC
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 15, 2023
France’s new line on migration, and the desire for cooperation with Italy, marks a sharp turn with the past.
When Giorgia Meloni became Italian Prime Minister at the end of 2022, relationships between Paris and Rome promptly soured.
Meloni had been very critical of French policies, with a speech on French policies in Africa going viral soon after she became PM.
Italian efforts to curb illegal mass migration were met with resistance by the French government, which spoke of Meloni’s Fratelli D’Italia as being an “issue” for them due to its numerous conservative stances.
The then-French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone even claimed there was a need to monitor the respect of “rights and freedoms” in Italy following Meloni’s rise to power.
Despite French objections against Italy’s more firm stance on migration, it did systematically expel foreign nationals coming in from Italy, something which was later found illegal by the European Court of Justice.
However, now that Emmanuel Macron’s new French government appears to be dependent on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, Paris appears to have made a shift to the Right.
Since coming to power, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has announced he wants new laws on the French books aimed at fighting migration, going so far as to demand a change to the country’s constitution to allow a referendum on the matter.
The interior minister called for the state to retake control over migration because otherwise, he said, “people smugglers are in charge.”
Rather than opposing Meloni, he seems to be inspired by her success. In the first months of 2024, illegal crossings to Italy over the Mediterranean dropped by more than 62 per cent compared to the year prior.
France’s new interior minister Bruno Retailleau has announced deportation flights to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, targeting illegal migrants in the French overseas island territory of Mayotte. https://t.co/X6oq5335nH
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 3, 2024
