Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said
Saturday that the meeting she had with French President Emmanuel
Macron on the sidelines of the G7 summit "went as well as the
previous meetings".
The encounter comes after recent tension between Rome and Paris
stemming from French officials' criticism of the Italian
government.
"We are practical people who go beyond the election-campaign
stuff we both have," she said.
"We are two countries who have close positions on many issues".
She said that Italy and EU "cannot become a refugee camp", which
means it is necessary to "defend the external border" of the
bloc.
The tension started with French Interior Minister Gérald
Darmanin saying 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. Stéphane Séjourné, the
secretary general of French President Emmanuel Macron's
Renaissance party, then weighed in, saying "Meloni does lots of
rabble-rousing on illegal immigration: her policies are unjust,
inhuman and ineffective".
Meloni, however, dismissed the comments, saying Séjourné was
trying to use Italy for domestic political purposes.
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