Italy is not hiding its anger with France.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lashed out at France on Thursday at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, rebuking her French counterparts for not bringing her to a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Wednesday night.
Even more remarkable, his offhand remarks were effectively ineffective in response to a question about a different topic: whether France and Germany were representing Europe during a recent US visit to discuss Washington’s subsidy spree. was “inappropriate”.
“To be honest, I thought the invitation extended to Zelensky yesterday was more inappropriate,” he retorted.
“I think our strength in this matter is community and unity, and I understand the domestic political issues,” she said. “But there are times when privileging domestic public opinion comes at the expense of reason, and I think this is one of those cases.”
The sharp rebuke showed just how dire relations between Italy and France have become since far-right Meloni came to power last year. The two countries initially quarreled when Italy refused to dock a rescue ship carrying 230 migrants to France.
At the time, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin warned of “extremely serious consequences” for relations between the two countries and said Paris would suspend plans to take asylum seekers from Italy.
Those tensions have clearly not eased, which is becoming a problem for the EU, especially over migration.
France is seen as a bridge between the EU’s southern countries, which want to send migrants arriving elsewhere in the EU, and the bloc’s northern bloc, which focuses more on enforcing existing asylum rules. which requires people to apply for asylum where they first arrive in Europe.
Diplomats in Brussels had hoped the major migration row between Italy and France would end in time Discussion During this week’s EU leaders’ summit.
But in a sign that ties are still frozen, there was no bilateral meeting between Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron on the agenda, diplomats pointed out. Italian journalists based in Brussels were not even told in advance that the Italian prime minister would make a statement before the summit, much less use that statement to castigate France.
But in reality, he risked a further deterioration of Franco-Italian relations.
After a spat between the two countries in November, some EU officials were even ready to believe Paris overreacted, but this time, Meloni may be taking the blame. Some diplomats insisted Thursday’s comments came after she appeared too eager to pay attention, suggesting Paris was not trying to dupe anyone with its Zelensky invitation.
Macron declined to give a direct answer to Meloni, speaking to reporters afterwards. But he argued that France and Germany “have had a special role on this issue for eight years,” noting that both countries helped broker a now defunct peace deal following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
He added: “I think it is up to President Zelensky, as well, to appreciate the formats he has chosen.”
And even if Meloni would not be included in the Franco-German visit to Washington, his ministers had no such hesitation. Italian Treasury Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was quoted Thursday in Italian and international media criticizing the effort.
“It is a two-nation initiative, not a European initiative,” he was Quoted as to say. “We haven’t been informed, and it doesn’t offend us. It shocks us.”
If Italy had done the same, he said, “this government would have been accused of being anti-sovereign and anti-European. … We’ll be on trial.
In an effort to ease tensions on Thursday, an official with the French economy minister said the two sides agreed to a meeting in Rome in March to discuss economic issues and try to accelerate joint work on the issue Were.
Giorgio Lilly contributed reporting