Head of Macron's party says Meloni's policies are 'inhuman'

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 10 - Stéphane Séjourné, the secretary general of French President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, was quoted by daily newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday as calling the migration policies of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's government "inhuman".
    "The French far right takes the Italian far right as a model," Séjourné, an MEP, was quoted as saying.
    "It is necessary to denounce their incompetence and their impotence.
    "Meloni does lots of rabble-rousing on illegal immigration: her policies are unjust, inhuman and ineffective".
    The statement comes on the back of a recent diplomatic spat between Italy and France that arose after Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Meloni was incapable of solving the migrant problems she had campaigned on.
    Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani subsequently cancelled a trip to Paris to see his counterpart Catherine Colonna in protest at the attack.
    Tajani had said on Friday that Paris appeared to have realized the gravity of the minister's claims after a French government spokesman denied any wish to ostracise Italy.
    French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also called for "peaceful dialogue" with Italy.
    It was a fresh migrant spat between the two countries after a clash over an NGO run migrant boat that ended up in France last November.
    Italy has seen a big increase in the number of migrants and refugees arriving via sea from North Africa this year.
    Rome has been calling on the European Union to do more to share out the burden of migrant flows between member States and to protect the EU's external border.
    Meloni's government has also passed legislation to regulate the activities of NGO-run migrant rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean. (ANSA).