The French government sought to play down a fresh row with Italy over migration on Friday, saying Paris was not looking to “ostracise” its EU partner and its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Italy’s foreign minister cancelled a trip to Paris on Thursday over what he termed “unacceptable” comments from French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who said Meloni was “incapable” of tackling her country’s migration crisis.
“There was no desire from the interior minister to ostracise Italy in any way at all,” French government spokesman Olivier Veran told the Cnews channel on Friday. “We continue to work with the Italians.”
“We have discussions with the Italians — they love politics — but they want to do things their own way, and they want others to let them,” he added.
“And that’s good because we don’t intend to do otherwise.”
Italian media reports on Friday suggested Rome had been left furious by Darmanin’s outburst, with Meloni said to be on the verge of cancelling a planned trip to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.
In a television interview on Thursday, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said Darmanin’s remarks were “a stab in the back” and he was waiting for him to “apologise to the prime minister, the government, and Italy”.
The French and Italian governments have clashed repeatedly in recent years over the management of their common land border and the admission of humanitarian boats carrying migrants rescued while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
French Transport Minister Clement Beaune, a close ally of Macron and a former Europe minister, was less conciliatory than Veran in a separate interview on Friday.
He stressed the political differences between Meloni’s right-wing government and Macron’s pro-EU centrist cabinet.
“There is not a solution to the migration issue which does not include European cooperation,” Beaune told Europe 1 radio.
“And you can see that every time there’s an attempt to go it alone, whichever country it is, it doesn’t work,” he added.
(AFP)