The latter "is unable to solve the migratory problems on which it was elected," said Gérald Darmanin on the French radio RMC while the peninsula has witnessed record arrivals of migrants on its shores since January.

Darmanin was responding to a question about comments made by Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, about the migration situation at the French-Italian border.

"Yes, there is an influx of migrants and especially minors" in southern France, acknowledged Mr. Darmanin, who blamed Rome: "The truth is that there is in Tunisia (...) a political situation that means that many children in particular go up through Italy and that Italy is unable (...) to manage this migratory pressure".

"Meloni, it's like (the leader of the extreme right in France Marine) Le Pen, she gets elected on +you will see what you will see + and then what we see is that it (immigration) does not stop and that it is amplified," continued the French minister. According to him, the head of the Italian government is facing "a very serious migration crisis".

The reaction of Rome to this attack in order was not long in coming: the head of Italian diplomacy, who was expected Thursday evening in Paris for a meeting with his counterpart Catherine Colonna, immediately canceled his visit.

"The offenses against the government and Italy launched by Mr. Darmanin are unacceptable," he denounced on Twitter. "This is not the spirit with which we must face common European challenges."

Faced with the escalation, Paris tried to calm the game, the Quai d'Orsay "hoping" that the visit would be "rescheduled quickly".

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"The French government wishes to work with Italy to face the common challenge of the rapid increase in migratory flows," the French Foreign Ministry said earlier in the wake of Darmanin's remarks.

The bilateral relationship is "based on mutual respect, between our two countries and between their leaders," the Quai d'Orsay also stressed.

Immigration has been an ultra-sensitive issue in Franco-Italian relations for years.

In November, the two countries experienced a surge of fever when the Meloni government, barely in power, refused to let dock a humanitarian ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée which had ended up being welcomed by the France in Toulon (south) with more than 200 migrants on board.

The episode had aroused the anger of Paris, which had convened a European meeting so that this unprecedented scenario would not happen again.

Since then, clandestine crossings by boat have increased with the rise of a new maritime corridor between Tunisia and Italy, on the front line at the gates of Europe.

According to the Italian Interior Ministry, more than 42,000 people have arrived via the Mediterranean in Italy this year compared to about 11,000 over the same period in 2022.

In this context, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced at the end of April the mobilization of 150 "additional" police and gendarmes to "face increased migratory pressure at the Italian border" as well as the creation of a "border force", a border force.

"In Australia, it works very well," defended Thursday Gerald Darmanin: "At the border, we stop people and make them pass identity checks."

According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest for migrants in the Mediterranean since 2017.

© 2023 AFP