Support across Europe for the implementation of a military blockade in the Mediterranean is growing amid the worsening migrant crisis on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been pushing heavily for the option since the recent arrival of thousands of migrants on the island. Eurocrats are saying that they are now considering the move.
An increasing number of Europeans appear to be keen on the option. A CSA poll in France found that as many as 69 per cent of the general public support a military blockade of the southern sea.
According to the data, backing for such an operation is slightly higher among the country’s women than men, with right-wing voters being the most likely to support the move.
The project also has backing from the centre-left, with just half of Socialist Party voters rejecting the move, while a slim majority of those supporting French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party are also said to be in favour.
Sentiments regarding the issue also appear to be slowly starting to shift in Brussels, with Berlaymont insisting that the European Commission is open to some sort of blockade being implemented. That is despite EC President Ursula von der Leyen repeatedly insisting that the bloc must meet its humanitarian obligations.
Even establishment politicians within traditionally pro-mass migration Germany are beginning to change their tune on Europe’s asylum surge.
With the pro-borders Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party gaining in popularity across the country, numerous parties have started to take a harsher stance on illegal immigration.
Ricarda Lang, the co-leader of the country’s Green party, has joined the debate on the anti-open borders side, attacking her coalition partners in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) for not doing enough to ensure rejected asylum seekers are deported.
Junge Union, the youth wing of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has demanded that rejected asylum seekers who cannot be deported should be detained instead.
“Rejected asylum seekers who cannot be deported must stay in return centres according to the Danish model,” said Junge Union leader Johannes Winkel.
The senior official went on to accuse those who opposed a tougher stance on migration of “irresponsibility”, adding that they were engaging in a “denial of reality”.