'Aggressive' French reaction on Ocean Viking 'unjustifiable' says Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 11 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday blasted France's "aggressive" response in a row over the NGO-run search-and-rescue ship the Ocean Viking.
    "When there is talk of retaliation in EU dynamics, something is not working," Meloni told a press conference.
    "I was struck by the aggressive, incomprehensible, unjustifiable reaction of the French government".
    On Friday Paris allowed the Ocean Viking, which is run by French NGO SOS Méditerranée, to dock in Toulon with 230 asylum seekers on board after Rome ignored the ship's appeals to be assigned a port of safety for weeks.
    But French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that Paris has suspended plans to take in 3,500 refugees currently in Italy and called on "all the participants" in the EU's migrant relocation mechanism to adopt similar measures.
    Darmanin called on "Germany in particular" to suspend the relocation of asylum seekers from Italy. (ANSA).