Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Carine Schmitt / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 18:10 p.m., September 14, 2023

While the small island of Lampedusa has been facing for several days an influx of migrant boats, welcoming more than 7,000 people, Marion Maréchal, head of the list of Eric Zemmour's party in the next European elections, announces that she is going there this Thursday. She is due to arrive in the evening.

Marion Maréchal, head of the list of Eric Zemmour's party in the next European elections, announced that she was going Thursday to the Italian island of Lampedusa where 7,000 migrants have landed in recent hours, in order to "support the Italians". The former MP is expected to arrive in the early evening.

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An overwhelmed visitor centre

The small island located between Sicily and Tunisia has been facing for several days an influx of migrant boats from North Africa, hosting more than 7,000 people, the equivalent of the entire local population. The island's reception centre, built to accommodate fewer than 400 people, is overwhelmed, with men, women and children forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic beds, most wrapped in survival blankets.

"Everyone has seen the extremely impressive images of this migratory submersion, of which this is unfortunately only the beginning," the number two of the far-right Reconquest party told AFP, stressing that "Lampedusa is not only the border of Italy but of all Europe". "In a way, the France and the French government are responsible, since they had, for example, welcomed the Ocean Viking (a humanitarian ship, editor's note) in Toulon" last November, she said.

"I want to report on the situation and bring a message of public support to the Italians," added the former RN MP, who passed into the Zemmour camp, saying that "in a week, these migrants will be with us, in Nice or Menton".

>> READ ALSO – Illegal immigration: "The France is less and less an attractive country"

Reconquest, support of the Fratelli d'Italia formation

Reconquest is a supporter of the post-fascist formation Fratelli d'Italia, from which the head of the transalpine government, Giorgia Meloni, comes. On Wednesday, Germany announced it was suspending the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from Italy, provided for by the European agreements, because of "strong migratory pressure" and Rome's refusal to apply these same agreements.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, for his part, announced reinforcements in the fight against illegal immigration at the border with Italy, where the authorities evoke a doubling of the number of migrants, during a visit to Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes earlier this week.