France and Italy have tried today to build bridges after the latest diplomatic tensions unleashed by immigration. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has received the Italian prime minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, at the Élysée to address the key issues of their bilateral relations, which have recently deteriorated for this reason.
In a joint statement before their meeting, both leaders have expressed the need to collaborate together on immigration. Macron has evoked the need to work with the countries of origin (especially Tunisia and Libya, those of origin of the illegals who arrive in Italy) and to reinforce controls at external borders. “We continue to see dramas in the Mediterranean, we must organize ourselves better” in terms of asylum and immigration,” Macron declared.
Meloni has been “in agreement with France” on this point and has recalled that “concrete steps are needed in the EU”. “Criminal networks cannot allow entry to our borders to be decided,” said the Italian Prime Minister, who denounced the trafficking of immigrants as “the slavery of the third millennium.”
The lack of harmony between both leaders has been palpable. It is the first time that Macron has received Meloni since she was elected prime minister last fall, although, as both have justified, they have already met “a dozen times” at other summits or international events. With today’s meeting, Macron is trying to end the diplomatic crisis that was opened in April by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who accused Meloni of being “incapable of solving immigration problems in her country, which is what she was elected for.” “. He also compared her to the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron’s eternal defender.
Although both leaders do not share the same political sensibilities, they have emphasized the ties that unite their respective countries. Macron has evoked the “deep cultural ties” and they have highlighted the anti-aircraft defense project that they jointly lead. 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 fights for freedom,” Meloni has said.
The appointment lasted an hour and a half, explain sources close to the meeting. Immigration has always been one of the sources of tension on both sides of the Alpine border, since Italy is a country of first entry and France, the secondary one. “We are both exposed to immigration from Africa and the Maghreb,” these sources point out.
Already in November, there were frictions when France decided to take in a drifting ship with more than 200 illegal immigrants on board that Rome had rejected in its port. Then Paris accused its neighbor of a lack of solidarity; He recalled that many of the countries that reach its shores are French-speaking, that is, their final destination is France.
Minister Darmanin’s words reopened this rift, to the point that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled his planned trip to Paris, described Darmanin’s words as unacceptable and demanded an apology. Since then the French government has tried to appease. The foreign minister traveled to Rome to meet her counterpart and a week ago Macron received the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella. The two strolled through the Louvre, where an art exhibition from Naples had just opened. The images of that walk show a very different feeling from the one perceived today at the Élysée.
Meloni was attending the presentation of Rome’s candidacy for the 2030 Universal Exposition at the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris today. 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.
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