The populists in Rome, calling for the replacement of the President in Paris. The verbal war is unleashed. The trouble between the neighbors has a certain Tradition. Bernd Riegert from Brussels.
No harmony: President Macron (li.) and Premier Conte in their only Meeting in June 2018
“The political leaders of France and Italy have not treated each other so poorly, since they were at war with each other,” wrote the commentator Aldo Cazzullo in the Italian daily newspaper “Corriere della Sera” on the relationship between the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the government in Rome. Cazzullo drew this conclusion not only after the recent verbal attacks of the extreme right-wing leaders of the Lega Nord and Minister of the interior Matteo Salvini, the French head of state, but already in June 2018. The dispute between France and Italy, the cooks in these days, is older and goes deep.
Migration as a boiling point
The starting point for the surprisingly poor relations between the two neighbouring countries and the EU founding States, the migration policy is. The xenophobic Minister of the interior, Salvini was in the summer of 2018 the Italian ports for the shipwrecked, and migrants close up. Macron called then, the right-wing populism and xenophobia is a “leprosy-ulcer”. France was “hypocritical”, shot back Salvini, because it is receiving no refugees.
Emmanuel Macron etched in turn, Italy was not a migration problem, but a “political crisis”. The Italian foreign Ministry has summoned the French Ambassador in Rome to the Rapport. An extremely rare operation between friendly governments in the EU. Only a few days after the inauguration of the government in Rome, the table was cut cloth with the EU-a Fan of Macron already. Although Macron welcomed the more moderate, occurring Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte to the inaugural visit to Paris, but after this, contacts were reduced on all levels, between Ministers and officials to a Minimum.
Yellow vests for the Italian election campaign: Salvini hopes that the protests in France lead to Marcons fall
Open Taboo
Since the advent of the protests of the yellow West, in France, in December, the populist party leader Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio of the 5 star movement to the front to put Alan on the handle on the French President. Salvini said in several Interviews that he hold on to the yellow West, the Macron was a “bad” President, and thus had to be replaced. Di Maio bat in a similar notch and threw France in Africa, “colonial policy” and forcing thousands of migrants to Italy. In the election campaign for the European Parliament, Macron will be the true opponent, said Salvini. The right-wing Minister of the interior openly supports Macrons biggest opponent, the French right populist Marine Le Pen from the Rassemblement National, the former National Front.
On the taboo of the Italian populists to call for the resignation of the heads of state in a friendly country, did the French foreign Ministry with the Call of the Italian Ambassador in Paris. The French Minister for Europe, stated that they will not engage in this “competition of stupidity”. Macron himself with public Statements.
The mood is in the basement. The Italians suffer from a kind of inferiority complex compared to the as arrogant perceived the French. The EU-Commission, France, the claim before the Italian Minister. Finally, Paris do also to a high level of debt, but I will not – bother different Rom with an excessive deficit procedure. “The EU of double standards”, claims the Italian diplomats in Brussels. It was no wonder, finally, the competent EU Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, the Frenchman is.
Old argument in a new guise
The Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi and the French President Sarkozy accused at the time of 2011, to each other, to push migrants over the border at Ventimiglia. The border was temporarily closed by the French. Italy gave the migrants a short-hand Schengen Visa and let you drag.
Allies against Macron: right-wing populists Salvini (li.) and Le Pen
Among the new governments in Rome and Paris and the tensions have tended to become even greater. Compromise is not in sight. The populists in Rome, the screw to tighten further and seem to want to use the close economic relations as ammunition. Luigi Di Maio accuses France now, to prevent a pacification of the former Italian colony of Libya in North Africa, to secure its access to oil Wells. The two parties involved, the Oil companies Total (France) and Eni (Italy) have rejected it. There were no conflicts over Oil in Libya, said in opinions of the company.
The total opposite
“The French President has virtually become a hate figure from Salvini and Di Maio. Because he embodies in many ways her opposite,” says the Zurich-based Tagesanzeiger from Switzerland. Emmanuel Macron wants to reform his country, and seeks cooperation with the EU and the German government. Salvini and Macron want to weaken Europe, to the benefit of the nation-States, writes the Swiss newspaper. They distributed to Pump money to their voters. In a short formula: A liberal Europeans against illiberal nationalists. A further escalation – at least up to the European elections end of may – is inevitable.
What do Leonardo?
And the dispute is always looking for new fields. One of them is Leonardo Da Vinci. Whose death anniversary in may for the 500. Time. The universal genius of the Renaissance was Italian or French? The Italian culture state Secretary, Lucia Borgonzoni of the right-wing Lega wants to negotiate Commitments on loans from Da Vinci’s work for an exhibition in France. “Leonardo is Italian, in France, he died only,” said Borgonzoni in Rome. However, the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci, probably the most famous painting in the Louvre in Paris. For the 28. February stated meeting, the Minister of culture from France and Italy for a summit to discuss the dispute on Leonardo’s heritage.
An Italian in Paris: Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa