The Italian Prime Minister on Monday denounced the double talk of Paris, which she accuses of “using” her country for internal political purposes.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published update
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, accused of being unable to resolve migration issues of his country, warned France on Monday May 8 against any “use” of Italy in matters of internal politics.
“I would caution against using other countries to solve domestic political issues, because that’s something you don’t usually do”, the far-right leader told reporters. Stating that she had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron the day before statements by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin questioning his management of immigration, Giorgia Meloni considered that there was clearly a difference between the speech that France held “in private and in public”. “It makes me think that this is a matter of French internal politics”she commented.
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The head of Italian diplomacy, Antonio Tajani, on Friday demanded an apology from Gérald Darmanin, whose comments on Giorgia Meloni’s inability to manage immigration caused a new crisis between Rome and Paris, which has since been trying to calm the Thu. Antonio Tajani had canceled Thursday evening his first visit to Paris, where he was to meet his counterpart Catherine Colonna, after statements by Gérald Darmanin accusing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of being “unable to resolve the migration issues on which she was elected”. Catherine Colonna quickly posted a message in Italian on Twitter, saying that “the relationship between Italy and France is based on mutual respect”. She immediately called Antonio Tajani.
Ultra-sensitive subject
Immigration has been an extremely sensitive subject in Franco-Italian relations for years. In November, the two countries experienced a fever pitch when the Meloni government, barely in power, refused to allow a humanitarian ship from the NGO SOS Méditerranée to dock, which ended up being welcomed by France in Toulon (south). with more than 200 migrants on board. The episode had angered Paris, which had called a European meeting so that this unprecedented scenario did not happen again.
Since then, the number of clandestine crossings by boat has increased. According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, more than 42,000 people have arrived via the Mediterranean in Italy this year compared to around 11,000 over the same period in 2022. Almost half of them come from French-speaking countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Tunisia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali), according to figures from the Italian Ministry of the Interior.