France and Italy have tried today to build bridges after the latest diplomatic tensions unleashed by immigration. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has received at the Elysee the Italian Prime Minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, to address the key issues of their bilateral relations, lately deteriorated for this reason.
In a joint statement ahead of their meeting, the two leaders expressed the need to work together on immigration. Macron has evoked the need to work with the countries of origin (especially Tunisia and Libya, those of origin of illegals arriving in Italy) and to strengthen controls at external borders. "We continue to see dramas in the Mediterranean, we must organize ourselves better" in terms of asylum and immigration, Macron said.
Meloni has been "in agreement with France" on this point and recalled that "concrete steps are needed in the EU". "The entry to our borders cannot be allowed to be decided by criminal networks," said the Italian prime minister, who has denounced that the trafficking of immigrants is "the slavery of the third millennium".
The lack of harmony between the two leaders has been palpable. It is the first time that Macron receives Meloni since she was elected prime minister last autumn, although, as both have justified, they have already met "a dozen times" at other summits or international appointments. With today's meeting, Macron tries to close the diplomatic crisis opened in April by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who accused Meloni of being "incapable of solving the immigration problems in her country, which is what she was elected for." He also compared her to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron's eternal manager.
Although both leaders do not share the same political sensibility, they have emphasized the ties that bind their respective countries. Macron has evoked the "deep ties" cultural and have highlighted the air defense project that they lead jointly. Paris and Rome are also the main trading partners. The two have agreed that they will show support for Ukraine for as long as necessary. "Ukraine is fighting for freedom," Meloni said.
Immigration has always been one of the hotbeds of tension on both sides of the Alpine border. Already in November, there was friction when France decided to take in a drifting ship with more than 200 illegal immigrants on board that Rome had turned away in its port. Then Paris accused its neighbor of lack of solidarity; He recalled that many of the countries that arrive on its shores are French-speaking, that is, they have France as their final destination.
Minister Darmanin's words reopened this rift, to the point that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled his planned trip to Paris, called Darmanin's words unacceptable and demanded an apology. Since then the French government has tried to appease. The foreign minister traveled to Rome to meet with her counterpart and a week ago Macron received Italian President Sergio Matarella. Both strolled through the Louvre, where an exhibition of Naples art had just opened. The images of that walk show a very different feeling from the one perceived today at the Elysée.
Meloni attended today in Paris the presentation of Rome's candidacy for the 2030 Universal Exhibition at the International Bureau of Exhibitions. He will also participate in the summit for a new global financial pact that Macron has organized Thursday and Friday and which will be attended by leaders of fifty countries.
- Paris
- Ukraine
- France
- Italy
- Arancha González Laya
- Saudi Arabia
- Ministry of Defence
- Marine Le Pen
- Libya
- Tunisia
- Emmanuel Macron
- Yellow vests
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