France and Italy will try this Thursday to show that everything is fine… or rather that everything is better between them. The head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna is expected in Rome where she is due to meet with her Italian counterpart to act on the thaw between the two countries after tensions over immigration.
Catherine Colonna is due to have a working lunch with Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and number two of Forza Italia, a minor partner in Giorgia Meloni’s ultra-conservative coalition. Before her trip, the one who was ambassador in Rome from 2014 to 2017, felt that France was “certainly not” in crisis with its Italian neighbor.
Colonna admits “a moment of hesitation” with Rome
The reactions were however strong in the peninsula after the remarks on May 4 of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, judging the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “unable to solve the migratory problems on which she was elected”. Antonio Tajani then canceled his meeting with Catherine Colonna, scheduled for the same day in Paris.
“It’s true there was a moment of hesitation and astonishment at the comments that were made,” admitted this week the Minister of Foreign Affairs on France 2. “We have explained ourselves since,” he said. -she adds.
Macron acknowledges EU must help Italy on migrants
Italy, for its part, criticizes its European partners for not taking their part in the reception of migrants who arrive on its territory after crossing the Mediterranean. Especially since according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, around half of the 46,000 people who have landed on its shores since the start of the year come from French-speaking countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Tunisia, Burkina Faso) . On the occasion of the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik in mid-May, Emmanuel Macron admitted that the EU should do more to help Italy manage these flows.
Antonio Tajani has already indicated that he would put on the table with his French counterpart “the theme of collaboration against illegal immigration but also the stabilization of Africa”. These actions must be “common and shared”, he said, quoted by the Ansa agency.
Tragic circumstance, diplomatic windfall: the deadly floods which ravaged Emilia-Romagna last week, a rich region in the north-east considered to be the orchard of Italy, enabled France to give pledges of goodwill to its neighbor. After Rome had asked for help from its European partners, Paris announced the dispatch of pumping means and personnel from military civil security formations. “Solidarity at work,” Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Tuesday.