Tensions rise between Italy and France after the events in Bardonecchia, where five French customs gendarmes trespassed and broke into a migrant center to force a Nigerian man to undergo a urine test. All in front of the astonishment of doctors and volunteers of the NGO Rainbow4Africa, which manages the center and denounced the action as illegitimate, arguing that the French agents also tried to intimidate the staff.
The Italian foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador to Rome for explanations. But Paris claims the legitimacy of the intervention in Italy. The French Minister of Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin, to whom the customs officers report, stated in a statement: "In order to avoid any incident in the future, the French authorities are at the disposal of the Italian ones to clarify the legal and operational framework in which French customs officers can intervene on Italian territory by virtue of an agreement (on cross-border control offices) of 1990 in conditions of respect for the law and people".
The Minister of the Interior, Marco Minniti, has a completely different opinion: "We cannot back down, it is mandatory to make it clear that the rules have been violated and for this it is necessary to react". The Viminale then made it known that incursions into the so-called "buffer zone" between Italy and France, tolerated up to now, will be prohibited. To cross the border, both the gendarmes and the customs officers will have to present an authorization request and will be able to proceed only in the event of an explicit go-ahead. "A necessary step - underlined Minniti - to defend our sovereignty in the face of an attitude that immediately appeared entrenched without there being a valid reason for acting in this way".
Positions from the world of politics were not long in coming. The secretary of the League Matteo Salvini thundered: “Apart from expelling Russian diplomats, here we need to remove French diplomats. With us in government, Italy will raise its head in Europe, we have no lessons to take from Macron and Merkel, and we will control our borders”.
The leader of the 5 Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, was more diplomatic, who commented in a tweet:
The Farnesina has done well in summoning the French ambassador. What happened to #Bardonecchia must be fully clarified in every aspect.
— Luigi Di Maio (@luigidimaio) 31 March 2018
