Madrid summons Italy’s ambassador after Tajani accuses Spain of encouraging human trafficking. Finland backs Rome’s position and Italy’s opposition accuses the government of chasing Vannacci’s far-right vote.
Relations between Italy and Spain have turned tense after Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani floated suspending Spain from the EU’s Schengen visa-free travel zone, following the arrival of thousands of migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday and Friday. Many swam around the border to reach it.
“The images coming from Ceuta are striking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a concrete threat to the security of Europe’s borders,” Meloni wrote on X on Thursday.
Meloni said she had spoken with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and warned that Italy would respond. “Italy will not stand by and watch,” she wrote. “We are convening the relevant bodies, and following these meetings, we are prepared to intervene with extraordinary measures to defend the borders and the safety of citizens, including the suspension of the Schengen Area with Spain. We will not yield an inch on illegal immigration: defending borders, stopping human traffickers, and ensuring effective repatriations will continue to be this government’s line.”
Tajani accuses Spain of encouraging trafficking
Tajani had struck an even sharper tone earlier in the day, saying he supported closing the Schengen area with Spain outright. “Irregular, uncontrolled immigration poses a danger to national security,” he wrote on X. “The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid Government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking.”
Spain’s response was swift and pointed. Foreign Minister José Luis Albares said Tajani’s comments were “unbecoming of the Foreign Minister of a partner and friendly country from which we expect European solidarity and not partisan demagoguery.” Albares announced he had summoned the Italian ambassador to Madrid on Friday over the remarks.
Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on Friday that she backed the Italian government’s stance. “Spain has completely failed to protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration,” Rantanen said. “This cannot continue. All European countries must support Meloni’s proposal. Countries that do not fulfil their obligation to protect the external border cannot be members of Schengen.”
Opposition accuses government of chasing Vannacci
Italy’s centre-left opposition dismissed the row as a political stunt. The Democratic Party (PD) said the call to suspend Schengen was designed to help the ruling coalition fend off the rise of the new far-right National Future party, led by general-turned-politician Roberto Vannacci.
PD foreign affairs chief Peppe Provenzano was scathing in his assessment. “[We have] a premier who sparks a diplomatic crisis with Spain in a reckless bid to chase after Vannacci,” he said. “A Foreign Minister who evidently fails to realise that Ceuta is an enclave in Africa and calls for the closure of the Schengen area with Spain.
“This is a government of irresponsible falsehoods peddlers; for four years, they have failed to solve a single problem, resorting daily to the most wretched propaganda. Meanwhile, the reality is that Spain is growing at 2.7% while Italy stagnates, and the citizens are footing the bill — facing ever-lower wages and an increasingly unsustainable cost of living.”
