French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called today to support Tunisia, which is experiencing a serious economic crisis, in order to limit the “migration pressure” from this country to Europe.

“In Tunisia, the very high political tensions and the raging economic and social crisis are very disturbing, in the absence of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund,” the French President said at a press conference after the meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

This fact “leads to a great destabilization of the country and the region and an increase in migratory pressure on Italy and the EU,” he continued, calling on the countries to “act together” at the European level to help Tunisia. “We need to stop the migration flows from Tunisia in the short term, which increase this pressure,” Macron insisted, adding that he had discussed this issue with the Italian Prime Minister during their bilateral contacts.

“If we do not solve these problems in a satisfactory way, there is a risk of an unprecedented wave of migration,” Meloni warned, who also discussed the matter with European Finance Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who will move to Tunisia one of the next days. He also added that countries should work at the diplomatic level to convince the two sides, the Tunisian government and the IMF, to conclude an agreement on the economic stabilization of the region.

Tunisia had been in talks for months about a loan of about $2 billion from the IMF, but talks appeared to stall after an agreement in principle was announced in mid-October.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, on Monday described the situation in Tunisia as “very dangerous” and even spoke of the risk of a “collapse” of the state, which would lead to “immigration flows to the EU.” and destabilize the Middle East and North Africa region.”

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.