Italy’s government in fresh rows with France and Spain

A new day, a new controversy.

Italy said it will seize two migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean, amid a deepening row over migrants. Two German NGO ships carrying migrants “will be seized” to determine their legal status.

The move comes as French President Emmanuel Macron attacked the “leprosy” of anti-EU feeling, angering Italy’s new populist government.

Italy sparked the fresh row earlier this month when it refused to take in the Aquarius rescue ship.

In the meantime, Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini on Thursday said Italy would not be pushed around at an emergency summit on migration, scheduled for Sunday in Brussels, after making threats to boycott the event.

On Wednesday he accused Spain of failing in its commitments to receive migrants, saying it should take “the next four” rescue boats after Madrid welcomed one rejected by Rome.

Minister Matteo Salvini targeted Spain with a criticism he had earlier levelled at France, alleging the countries had received only a fraction of the migrants they had agreed to take under a European Union deal.

Spain “can therefore receive the next four boats” of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, Salvini told a press conference.