Italy suspends Schengen with Spain; France tightens its Pyrenean border
Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini announced the measure on Thursday evening, and it was formally approved on Friday morning at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi: targeted and selective checks on non-EU travellers arriving from Spain, with EU citizens unaffected. Tajani called it a necessary choice to safeguard Italian citizens and defend Europe's borders. Spain's foreign minister José Manuel Albares summoned Italy's ambassador in Madrid, and Pedro Sánchez replied that solidarity is optional but respect for the European treaties and for the facts is not; Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechia and Sweden meanwhile moved closer to the Italian position, and Emmanuel Macron announced tighter controls on France's land border with Spain.