The issue of immigration continues to make headlines and has ended up a priority on the European agenda. The survival of Europe hangs on to the ability of the Western States to solve the migration crisis. One may like or dislike Matteo Salvini but one cannot deny the historical fact that it is thanks to him that we are talking again about this phenomenon. Perhaps, phenomenon is not the best choice in this context, for not only are we here talking about human beings seeking a brighter future in Europe and beyond, but we are also talking about hypocrisy. What Salvini’s action has exposed is the great European hypocrisy that has enveloped migration for a long time.
On the one hand, we have had France’s attitude. To start with, initially the French President remained silent on the issue of the Aquarius. It was very late in the day when Macron took a strong stand on this and ended up insulting the Italian Government to whom he eventually had to apologize. Members of the French National Assembly must be genuinely concerned about this, since the issue of human rights could rock Macron’s movement. These members want France to live up to her international reputation as being the cradle of human rights. The President’s approach towards the migrants’ plight left much to be desired. In the past, migrants had been forcibly expelled from France and sent back to Italy. Back then, no French politician raised his voice to protest that such action went against human rights. These episodes are now haunting France and Macron is becoming so edgy, that he is trying to act the absolute monarch in search of elevating titles far removed from what are the principles on which French democracy was founded, in particular, with regard to égalité.
The fact is that the issue of the Aquarius goes beyond human rights. The French President had to react because at stake was the issue of the unity of his country. Nationalism in Corsica is on the increase. I have been following Corsican politics over the last decades, particularly as I am a good friend of Professor Serpentini with whom I collaborated on his dictionary on Corsica. The sense of cultural identity in Corsica today is even stronger than it was twenty years ago. The Corsicans see themselves completely different to the French and the Italians. The Aquarius crisis and the inertia of the French Government prompted Corsica to offer her ports to this ship. The Central Government in Paris interpreted this move as a direct threat to French hegemony over its territory. One may recall that there were also other towns in Italy, like Naples, that were willing to receive migrants. But the French political system of regions and departments is different to that of Italy. Such a stand meant that Corsica was literally usurping rights, which strictly speaking, belonged only to the French Government and the French President. I believe this was the true reason for Macron’s reaction. Nonetheless, France’s reaction was extremely immature to the extent that the existing good relations with Italy are at risk.
Meanwhile, it is now becoming apparent that Italy wants to rope in Libya once again. Historically, Libya was within Italy’s sphere of influence. Even Berlusconi attempted to have a Libyan policy which was wrecked by Hilary Clinton in 2011.
At one point, it was not clear whether the meeting between the Italian Prime Minister Conte and French President Macron was going ahead. But France had every interest to hold this meeting. Even though this was not stated anywhere in the media, the stakes here were/are neither the migrants nor the rescue zone, but the control over Libya.
Previous Italian Governments left Libya in French hands, allowing it to become, for the first time, France’s sphere of influence. Malta gave France a helping hand. The fatal private plane crash at Malta International Airport, some time ago, revealed France’s secret missions to Libya. Now, Maghreb news agencies are reporting that French foreign policy over Libya is one big mess. The French Government got caught in the internal fighting to the extent that there was a ‘highly conspicuous absence’ of the city-state of Misurata from the inter-Libyan summit held in Paris last May.
The tirades against Malta that we are now facing have exposed Italy’s real interests. First we had the Italian Minister Toninelli stating that Malta is a spy of the EU. Then, the same minister inadvertently, I would state, bullied Malta to relinquish its maritime territory to Italy. Now we have his colleague, Di Maio, who is also the Italian Vice-Prime minister, stating that Italy is giving free electricity to Malta, which is not correct.
Obviously, one can also argue, as Raphael Vassallo has done, that if Italy does not want to rescue migrants, she should relinquish the island of Lampedusa in favour of Malta and Malta could start hosting these migrants there. Incidentally, the first recorded inhabitants on Lampedusa were Maltese who went to live there in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Before, it was uninhabited territory and the island was mainly visited by Moors and the galleys of the Knights of St. John. Therefore, Malta can make a solid historic claim for Lampedusa.
But the scope here is not to exchange diatribes between the two countries, even though the relationship between both states is at a low ebb. Such statements by Toninelli and Di Maio hide, in my opinion, a rekindled interest in Libya and the messy way that our Foreign Office has been dealing in this regard.
And this explains why both Conte and Macron were keen, despite this international crisis, to keep their appointment. Furthermore, this explains why new accusations - upheld by documentation - regarding the visa medical scandal, exposed by Ivan Grech Mintoff, hit the international news. Let us hope that this sale of visas was not done with the full support of the French Government in return for Malta’s help in Libya. Incidentally, Malta is being accused of having been selling visas also in Algeria. This is extremely revealing. Till today, nothing happens in Algiers, including the sale of visas, without France’s full support or complacent knowledge. It is to be hoped that we are not facing a massive international imbroglio.
My fear is that we, as a country, are not ready for the changes that will be taking place in Libya. The way Malta behaved means that we will miss being the protagonists of this political change. More the pity, given the long history of cooperation that we have maintained with Libya; one that goes back to Dom Mintoff’s work.
Back in 2015, I wrote highlighting the importance for Government to consider having a minister responsible solely for our extensive maritime territory. Back then, I explained that Malta has a maritime territory which is by far bigger than her land surface but this maritime territory does not fall under any specific ministry! I further reiterated that this does not make sense; I am still of the same opinion.
The recent exchanges between Malta and Italy and Italy's claim to take over part of our maritime territory including the statements regarding the interconnector, confirm that my historical reading as correct. It is time that our Government starts giving our maritime territory the political importance that it deserves, rather than focusing on supporting shoddy ‘commercial deals’, as in the case of the visa scandal. Our maritime territory is so vast that it is the envy of many nations. The recent episodes go to show that there are states intent on taking advantage of our Government’s lacunae to reap the national treasures that we are systematically neglecting.