After last Tuesday's quick visit, Giorgia Meloni returns to Tunis . And this time not alone: with her the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen and the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte . And, above all, 900 million that Tunisia can use to avoid default .
After the meeting with the Tunisian president Kais Saied Giorgia Meloni expressed her satisfaction and underlined the desire to «arrive at the European Council at the end of June with a memorandum of understanding on migrants already signed between the EU and Tunisia . We are ready to organize an international conference on migration and development that we talked about with President Saied. This will be a further step on this journey».
The Prime Minister thanked Von der Leyen for his "tireless work". "The joint declaration - he said - is an important first step for a partnership between Tunisia and the EU , to address both the migration crisis and the issue of development in an integrated way for both shores of the Mediterranean".
«The EU and Tunisia – Von der Leyen said – have a broad interest in blocking the cynical activity of migrant traffickers. We will support Tunisia with one hundred million for maritime border surveillance and Sar activities . We are also considering a macro-financial assistance plan and we are ready to mobilize over 900 million euros as soon as an agreement is found with the IMF ».
All roses and flowers, at least that's how it seems. But yesterday the Tunisian president Kais Saied had ice cream Giorgia Meloni: " We will not guard the border of other states ," he said during a visit to Sfax, the Tunisian city that has long since become the main departure point for boats to the Italy. “We are all Africans. These migrants are our brothers and we respect them, but the situation in Tunisia is not normal and we must put an end to this problem. We reject any inhuman treatment of these migrants who are victims of a world order that considers them as numbers and not as human beings, but the intervention on this phenomenon must be humanitarian and collective, within the framework of the law ».
(Unioneonline/L)