Guest Post by Becky Behrends, M.D.
Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (MC4EI.com)

Seventy thousand African immigrants have flooded into Italy in 2022. The EU has done nothing to help. According to a 2019 agreement with the EU, when illegal immigrants dock at an Italian port, each EU member state is supposed to redistribute them to the tune of 3500 persons each. However, observers have noted that illegal immigrants that are dispersed from Italy into France simply get returned back to the Italian town they departed from by the French police.

Recently, Meloni took matters in hand and barred an ocean vessel, the Ocean Viking, from docking in Italian ports. This vessel contained 230 illegal African migrants. Instead, the vessel had to dock at the French port of Toulouse. French President Emmanuel Macron spouted off his outrage against Meloni’s behavior as selfish, unacceptable, a breach of trust, and a violation of international norms. He threatened her that there would be grave consequences. But Meloni shot right back and noted that France had taken a grand total of 37 illegal migrants this year out of the agreed upon 3500. Appears that the French are the ones violating agreements and trust.

Since Meloni’s election, the western media and leftist political establishment have branded her as a dangerous fascist and a far-right extremist. Meloni made immigration a major part of her campaign as she called for control of the Italian borders from the flood of African migrants, among others. She was widely denounced by the leftist media as inhumane and a neanderthal obstructionist to global citizenship. You know, the open borders elitist mantra of (to paraphrase Michael Jackson) “We are the World”!! However, it is hard to “feel the love” of these elitists toward their fellow citizens when they exhibit no concern for its impact on them. Such as increased taxes and reduced services for citizens in order to accommodate the flood of immigrant newcomers. In addition, the downward pull on wages for citizens with increased competition for jobs, increase in crime, and cultural disparities leading to segregation and resultant general hostility.

In a 2019 televised interview, Giorgia Meloni blasted the French regarding their hypocritical stance on immigration. During the interview, Meloni held up a picture of a child who works in a gold mine in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest nations on earth. It is located in Africa. Child labor is illegal, but this does not stop it. Meloni explained: “France prints colonial money for Burkina Faso, which has gold. In return, they demand that 50 percent of everything that Burkina Faso exports ends up in the coffers of the French treasury. That gold that this child goes down a tunnel to extract mostly ends up in the coffers of the French state.”

I bet @EmmanuelMacron now regrets to have picked a fight with @GiorgiaMeloni. pic.twitter.com/iIFJRr0C5O

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) November 19, 2022

Elisabeth Borne, the Prime Minister of France, promised to keep an eye on Meloni to ensure that “she would respect human rights in Europe because Europeans carry a certain number of values that include respect for each other!” Whew!! More French hot air than you could pump into a balloon over the Loire Valley!

With her characteristic passionate verbal skills, Meloni twisted the “French” knife when she said: “So, the solution is not to take Africans and bring them to Europe. The solution is to free Africans from certain Europeans who exploit it and allow these people to live off what they have!!!”

SkyNews of Australia commentators gushed their approval of Meloni with “Sweet Mary, Mother of God, that woman is magnificent”!

Hopefully, Giorgia Meloni will continue on a path of shaking things up in Italy and restoring some common sense and values.

Open borders crusaders need to be prepared for backlash sooner or later by their ill-conceived policies. Yes, yes, we are constantly reminded that these folks are impressively progressive and open-minded. But, as it has been cleverly stated- “Don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out.” Thankfully, the new Italian Prime Minister appears to have her brain in full gear and moving in the “Right” direction!

According to Yahoo News – At the time Ms. Meloni made her claim in 2019, France required African countries that used the CFA franc to deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves (not their exports) with the French treasury in return for a guaranteed exchange rate with the Euro. These countries were free to access these reserves at any time if they wanted to, and France paid them interest while holding them (at 0.75%). France didn’t “demand 50% of everything Burkina Faso exports,” either.

In response to the “explanation” given by Yahoo News in reference to Meloni’s claims in 2019, it was not assumed by Meloni that 50% of all “exports” ended up in the French treasury. Obviously, modern treasuries store money, not raw gold ingots, cotton, zinc, or a variety of nuts, which are the main exports by Burkina Faso. Anyone familiar with the financial problems of sub-Saharan Africa understood Meloni to mean the money derived from exports, i.e., foreign exchange reserves.

The problem is that 14 African countries are required to store around 85% of their currency reserves in the French central bank in Paris. African economists and university professors say no African country is capable of determining how much of their hard-earned foreign reserves actually belong to them, contrary to what the French government says. How much has been invested and where? What profit or loss has there been on the investment? That is privileged information held by France. Africans have been reduced to “taxpayers for France” without access to the usual goods and services made available to other French taxpayers.

In addition, French corporations must be given preferential treatment in placing orders in the African ex-French colonies. Thus, utilities, finance, transport, energy, and agriculture are in the hands of French businesses.

African politicians and leaders have their hands tied. If they try to buck the system, they are faced with assassination or overthrow of their government because others are always standing in the wings, ready to take over and ingratiate themselves with the French. In the last 50 years, a total of 67 coups took place in 26 African nations. 16 of these nations were former French colonies.

Even though French African colonies were nominally given their sovereignty decades ago, they still function as “colonies” because of being under the thumb of France financially. In 2019, there was an unprecedented diplomatic bust-up between France and Italy. Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister accused France of manipulating African countries and thereby exacerbating the European migration crisis. He said that “if France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. Instead, it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.” As one Nigerian economist noted, “ The Italians are right. The French stole our gold, diamonds, and other natural resources to build all those fancy buildings you see in Paris today.”;