After the words of Gérald Darmanin considering that Giorgia Meloni was “unable to solve the migratory problems”, Rome demands that France apologize.
Rome launches the response. The head of Italian diplomacy on Friday demanded an apology from French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, whose the sayings on Giorgia Meloni’s inability to manage immigration caused a new diplomatic crisis between Paris and Rome.
“It’s a gratuitous and vulgar insult addressed to a friendly, allied country” and “when someone gratuitously offends another person, the minimum is that they apologize,” said Antonio Tajani in a meeting daily Il Corriere della Sera.
“A stab in the back”
Antoni Tajani canceled Thursday evening his first visit to Paris, where he was to meet his counterpart Catherine Colonna, after the statements by Gérald Darmanin on RMC 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, between our two countries and between their leaders”. She immediately called Antonio Tajani.
“Catherine Colonna called me twice, to tell me she was sorry, she was very cordial”, assured Antonio Tajani, while considering that the explanations from Paris remained “insufficient”.
“This is a cold attack, a stab in the back from a leading member of the French government. There are things that cannot be ignored. The rest of the Macron’s executive, however, certainly does not think like Darmanin,” insisted Antonio Tajani.
Meloni’s promises
Immigration has been an ultra-sensitive subject in Franco-Italian relations for years. In November 2022, the two countries experienced a strong outbreak of fever 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, clandestine crossings by boat have increased with the development of a new maritime corridor between Tunisia and Italy, on the front line at the gates of Europe.
According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, more than 42,000 people have arrived by the Mediterranean in Italy this year against around 11,000 over the same period in 2022. Government spokesman Olivier Véran tried on Friday to put out the fire , ensuring that there had been “no desire to ostracize Italy”.
“The Italians, we discuss, they love politics, but they assume the choices they have made and they want to be left to assume their choices”, he explained, “and that’s good because we have no intention of doing otherwise”
“The slap in the face of Paris”, headlines the Italian press
Beside the coronation of Naples in Serie A, the Italian press headlined this Friday morning on this new quarrel between the two neighbors. La Repubblicaa centre-left daily, referred to “the slap in the face of Paris”, while La Stampa recalled that “the fight against illegal immigration had been one of Meloni’s hobbyhorses during the electoral campaign” in the summer of 2022.
“With promises to set up a ‘naval blockade’ to prevent departures to the peninsula. But just arrived at Palazzo Chigi [siège du chef du gouvernement à Rome], the Prime Minister had to take note of the infeasibility of her project. And the French have repented of having believed in it”, writes the Turin newspaper.