ZCZC
BFF-46
ITALY-FRANCE-DIPLOMACY
Italy’s Salvini says ready to talk to ease France spat
ROME, Feb 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo
Salvini said Monday he was ready to meet his French counterpart “this week”
for talks following a spat which saw France recalling its ambassador from
Rome.
Ties between the two neighbours sunk to their lowest point since World War
II last week after Paris recalled its envoy in protest over a string of jibes
by Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, both senior figures in Italy’s populist
government.
On Friday, Salvini said he invited his French counterpart Christophe
Castaner to Rome for talks, but in an unguarded moment later said he was
going “to summon him” — prompting a dry rebuttal by the French minister.
On Monday, he tried again.
“I am ready to welcome him in Rome or to go to Paris, even this week,” he
said.
“I think that restoring good relations is fundamental, the earlier the
better.”
The escalating war of words began last year after Di Maio’s Five Star
Movement and Salvini’s far-right League won elections and formed a populist
and eurosceptic government.
When Italy began barring migrant boats from docking at its ports, French
President Emmanuel Macron blasted Rome’s “cynicism and irresponsibility”,
comparing the rise of far-right nationalism to leprosy, prompting a string of
tit-for-tat insults.
Ahead of the European Parliament elections in May, Salvini and Di Maio —
both of whom are deputy prime ministers — have made a series of increasingly
personal attacks on Macron.
But the diplomatic straw that broke the camel’s back was Di Maio’s meeting
last Tuesday with the “yellow vest” protesters who have staged months of
anti-government demonstrations across France, many of which have turned
violent.
Two days later, France recalled its ambassador, sparking the biggest crisis
between the two founding members of the European Union since the war ended in
1945.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:20 hrs