ROME, 31 October 2020, (Media Report): Italy’s interior minister hit back at far-right accusations that the government’s “open-door policy” was to blame for allowing the arrival and transit of a Tunisian man suspected of killing three people at a church in the French city of Nice, AJ reported.

Minister Luciana Lamorgese’s comments came after her predecessor and leader of the anti-migrant League party, Matteo Salvini, led a chorus of far-right and centre-right voices calling for her resignation, alleging she and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte held the “moral responsibility” for Thursday’s attack in Nice.

“There is no responsibility on our part,” Lamorgese told reporters on Friday, adding it was “time to stop with these polemics and to be close to the French people and to other European countries, because this is an attack on Europe”.

The suspect, 21-year-old Brahim Aouissaoui, arrived on September 20 in Lampedusa, an Italian island on the southern edge of Europe that has long been the first point of entry for those crossing the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to reach Europe.

More than 27,000 refugees and migrants reached Italy via the sea from January 1 to October 29, compared to 9,533 in the same period of 2019, according to interior ministry data. More than 11,000 recently arrived from Tunisia.