Italy can't be left to cope with the migrant emergency on its own, French President Emmanuel Macron said on his arrival at the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik Tuesday ahead of a possible meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after bilateral tensions over the migrant issue with repeated French ministerial criticism of the Italian premier's policies.
"I will see you here, we will have the opportunity to continue to talk to each other. I hope to cooperate with the Italian government, you cannot leave Italy alone to deal with pressure' of migratory flows," said Macron, responding to Tg3's questions.
"We must be able to welcome those who come from countries at war and against traffickers," Macron added, "we need European solidarity and the effectiveness of our common borders." Macron and Meloni could meet this week, an encounter which would be expected to clear the air after recent tension following French ministerial broadsides against Italian migrant policy, sources at the Élyse'e Palace, the French President's official residence, told ANSA on Friday.
Any meeting would probably be aimed at overcoming a recent series of spats over French ministerial criticism of Italian migrant policy.
Ste' phane Se' journee' , the secretary general of Macron's Renaissance party, sparked the latest row with Italy Wednesday by calling Meloni's migration policies "inhuman".
Meloni, however, shrugged off the new attack saying it was aimed at a domestic, French audience since Renaissance allegedly had "electoral problems" with the French far right, which is led by Marine Le Pen.
"The French far right takes the Italian far right as a model," Se' journe' , an MEP, was quoted as saying by French conservative daily Le Figaro.
"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"," said the 37-year-old right hand man of Macron, who is married to another French minister, Gabriel Attal, and is also the head of the Renew Europe group at the European Parliament.
His statement came on the back of recent sparring that arose after Interior Minister Ge' rald Darmanin said Meloni was incapable of solving the migrant problems she had campaigned on, suggesting she had lied to the Italian electorate.
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 subsequently 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 only the latest run-in between the two countries after a clash over an NGO run migrant boat that ended up in France last November.
Responding to Se' journe' s fresh blast, Meloni said on a visit to Prague: "I believe they are using the policies of other governments to settle internal scores. I don't think this is ideal in terms of politics and etiquette, but everyone makes the choices they want to make.
"Obviously there is some problem they have to solve. But I don't think it is a problem they have with us. Evidently there is some consensus-maintaining problem that needs to be addressed, but it is an internal problem. I don't want to get into it, I understand the difficulties".
Asked if she had sent a message to Macron about this latest incident, the premier replied: "No, no, I am (only) interested in what the Italians say about the work I do".
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