After a stormy start between Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron, Franco-Italian relations seem to be on the path to warming, thanks to the same migration issue which had damaged them.

“An agreement of reason”, summarizes historian Marc Lazar for AFP. “They have fundamental political differences but for the moment, the two governments are trying to show that they are acting hand in hand” in the face of their common challenges, a year, soon, after Giorgia Meloni took office.

However, they had not started under the best auspices, the relations between the president of the Italian council, at the head of an ultraconservative coalition, and the French president, who claims to be frankly pro-European progressive.

As soon as Ms. Meloni’s victory in the legislative elections of September 2022, the Rome-Paris axis which had tightened under Mario Draghi had once again weakened.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had put Italy on notice to “respect” human rights and the right to abortion in Italy. A slap in the face for the new majority.

In November, in line with Ms. Meloni’s promises to “block” migrant landings, Italy triggered a diplomatic crisis by refusing to welcome the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking and the 230 people on board.

France had let him dock while denouncing the “unacceptable” behavior of Rome.

The following spring, the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin reignited the fuse by judging Giorgia Meloni “incapable of resolving the migration problems on which she was elected”.

In Italy, political reactions were violent. But quickly the two leaders decided to talk to each other, increasing the number of calls and bilateral interviews, as at the G7 in May in Japan.

And it is the burning migration issue which, paradoxically, has come to play justice in recent weeks: in mid-September, 8,500 migrants landed in three days on the island of Lampedusa.

Italian confetti located less than 150 km from the Tunisian coast, it represents one of the first stops for migrants crossing the Mediterranean hoping to reach Europe.

Giorgia Meloni brings Ursula von der Leyen to the island who announces an emergency aid plan. In Paris, the tone is more conciliatory: Ms. Meloni calling on the European Union for help is a godsend.

“We cannot leave the Italians alone,” pleads Emmanuel Macron.

Same change of foot among the Italians.

Traveling Monday evening in Paris, the head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani expressed his satisfaction with French “solidarity”.

According to some analysts, Brussels and Paris want to use their aid to Italy as a lever for Ms. Meloni to press her sovereignist allies, Hungary and Poland, to accelerate the reform of the Asylum and Immigration Pact.

Italian criticism is now focused on Germany, accused of having temporarily stopped accepting migrants living in Italy, after Rome itself suspended European rules governing the distribution of migrants. Rome also criticizes Berlin for financing NGOs helping migrants in its country.

For the center-left daily La Repubblica, Ms. Meloni, by challenging Germany, is seeking to “build an enemy” to better sell her desire for rapprochement with Brussels and Paris.

The Franco-Italian thaw owes a lot to the calendar: Meloni and Macron want to demonstrate their ability to find solutions in the run-up to the 2024 European elections.

Although adversaries in the Strasbourg Parliament, they intend to pose as pragmatic leaders, above the fray, facing their respective troublemakers, anchored to the extreme right, Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen, supporters of a hard line , national and nationalist to curb immigration.

Mr. Salvini’s Anti-Migrant League is a member of Ms. Meloni’s government coalition and he himself is one of the two deputy prime ministers with Antonio Tajani.

But the League sits with the National Rally in Strasbourg in the Identity and Democracy group, while Ms. Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia is part of the European Conservatives and Reformists.

Beyond the migration issue, Italy and France share a strategy of support for Ukraine. They also defend, with Spain and against Germany and the so-called “frugal” countries, the same line on the stability pact.

Which does not mean that there are not other areas of friction, for example in Africa, where Italy “wants to get its foot in the door” by taking advantage of the French decline, notes Marc Lazar. “Adieu Françafrique,” ??wrote the Turin newspaper La Stampa on Tuesday.

09/27/2023 07:45:27 –         Rome (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP