It isn’t exactly news that the rescue ship Aquarius is unwelcome. What is, is that this was now announced not by Italian Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini, but by French finance minister Bruno Le Maire: “For now, France says no,” writes Magyar Hírlap columnist Ottó Nagy.
It is very pertinent that since Italy denied docking of the rescue ship, France has also done so, saying that according to EU rules the ship should dock at the “nearest safe harbor”. This is all very good: according to both European regulations and the Hungarian position refugees should be processed and registered in the nearest safe country. The only problem, or rather double standard is that while Hungary is being chastised for this in the European Parliament, nobody blames Macron for doing the same. At least we haven’t heard any breaking news that Judith Sargentini would be rushing to France in order to ascertain the inhumane and anti-democratic treatment of refugees.
But the question remains whether an overzealous public prosecutor will sue Bruno Le Maire – as did the public prosecutor of the Italian city of Agrigento with Matteo Salvini, after the latter refused docking to the refugee ship Diciotti. In the meantime, Panamanian authorities withdrew the registration of the ship, meaning that at the next docking it will have to lower the Panamanian flag and cannot leave until it is registered by another nation.
Salvini has already made it clear that Aquarius may hoist as many flags as it wishes and will still not be allowed to dock in Italian ports. Until such time those defending migrants under the pretense of democracy figure the situation out, we would advise them to perhaps ressurect Gaddafi. Should they succeed, that would rid us of a sea of trouble and every single rescue ship.
