"Every second that passes, the bomb ticks a second closer. Either someone cuts the red cable and defuses this bomb now, or the Open Arms will explode," he told Spain's TVE television. "This is inhuman. We're close to land and people could swim there. They want to throw themselves in the water. It's untenable. They can't take it anymore." This is the latest in a series of standoffs between a charity vessel rescuing migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and a defiant Salvini, this time set against the background of a political crisis in Rome.
"I will not give in," Salvini said in a statement, accusing the NGO of "taking the world for ride for the nth time." The Open Arms "has been dancing around the Mediterranean Sea for days with the sole aim of picking up as many people as possible to as always, bring them only to Italy." "In all this time it could have gone to a Spanish port and back three times! These NGOs are just interested in scoring political points at the expense of the migrants and our country," he said.
Salvini last week pulled his party out of the ruling coalition in the hope of toppling the 14-month-old government, blaming his erstwhile coalition partner, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) for a host of problems. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte meanwhile blasted Salvini, saying "France, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg have told me that they are ready to welcome the migrants".