The incomparable setting of the Louvre Museum, in Paris, has served this Wednesday to ease relations between France and Italy, which have experienced disagreements in recent weeks over the immigration issue. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, have inaugurated together the new exhibition of the aforementioned museum entitled Naples in Paris, with works on loan from the Capodimonte Museum of the Italian city, before having lunch together at the Elysee.
In front of masterpieces of Italian art such as La Gioconda, by Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the most iconic paintings in the Louvre, or The Flagellation, by Cavavaggio, both leaders have visualized that image of “trust and friendship” that, says the Élysée, there has always been between the two countries. Mattarella was accompanied by his daughter and Macron by his wife. The tour has lasted an hour. Nothing like art to resolve differences.
With this visit, and the one that the Foreign Minister, Catherina Colonna, made to Rome last week, the neighboring countries closed the last crisis opened a month ago after the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, accused the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, of not knowing how to manage the immigration problem that Italy has.
Emmanuel Macron received Mattarella “in the name of the relationship of trust and friendship” that the two countries have, as well as “the exceptional ties that unite them”, as detailed by the Élysée. These are expressed “above all through the rich bilateral cultural cooperation.”
Another of these shared ties, in addition to art and culture, is immigration, which is often the focus of conflict, but even more so since the far-right Giorgia Meloni came to power last fall. Then, in November, a first crack opened when Paris agreed to take in the Ocean Viking ship, blocked in the Mediterranean with 230 immigrants on board, after Italy rejected it at its port, where other ships with undocumented immigrants had already disembarked.
Then there was already an exchange of accusations between Meloni and the head of the French Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Both accused each other of the migratory problem that they share at the border. Paris criticized Rome’s lack of humanity, which in turn highlighted the overreaction of the neighboring country. Already then, Macron and Mattarella spoke by phone to ease tensions.
The migratory wound was reopened a few weeks ago, when Darmanin accused the prime minister of “being incapable of solving the problem, which is what she was elected for.” In addition, she compared her to the French far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, Macron’s eternal rival. Italy decreed a state of emergency in April in the face of the avalanche of immigrants without papers that were arriving on its shores.
Darmanin’s statements made the Italian foreign minister cancel his planned visit to Paris that same day and demand an apology. French diplomacy was quickly activated to try to resolve the “misunderstanding”. The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, qualified Darmanin’s words and last week it was the French Foreign Minister who traveled to Rome to meet with her counterpart and have a good gesture.
At the G7 held in Japan two weeks ago Macron and Meloni met for a few minutes. The French president acknowledged that Italy needs more solidarity from EU members on this issue. Rome has always asked for more collaboration from the other partners, especially since many of the illegal immigrants who land on its coasts have other destinations, and one is France.
According to data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, a high percentage of immigrants who arrive in its territory come from French-speaking countries, such as the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso or Mali. After Mattarella’s visit, Macron hopes to receive Meloni in the coming weeks, probably at the summit he plans to hold with other leaders in Paris at the end of the month.
Another appeasement gesture came on Tuesday from Mattarella, in a meeting with a group of young diplomats in Paris. In the afternoon, on the day of the commemoration of the landing of the allies in Normandy in the middle of the Second World Cup, he recalled how “in that stormy period, General Charles de Gaulle always evoked a neighborliness and an interdependence between the two countries.” “Relations between Italy and France are centuries old. Your task is to continue feeding them,” he told them.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project