Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said he would be happy to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss recent tensions between the two European Union nations on Thursday, according to Reuters.
After France's Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to Italy, Salvini said he wanted to reset relations with Paris but still said France needed to address several "fundamental issues."
Salvini said France needed to have its police end pushing migrants back into Italy and carrying out border checks that block traffic at the border between two countries.
He also said Paris needed to hand over 15 Italian leftist militants who have been living in France in recent years.
Earlier on Thursday, Macron's government recalled its ambassador over the "repeated, baseless" attacks by Italian politicians against France.
The diplomatic feud is unusual between members of the EU but diplomatic sources said Paris felt compelled to react after several verbal assaults from Italy's deputy prime ministers.
In particular, Luigi di Maio, head of the anti-establishment 5-Star movement in Italy, met with several of France's "yellow vest" protest leaders, who have been leading marches against Macron throughout France.
“France has been, for several months, the target of repeated, baseless attacks and outrageous statements,” the foreign ministry said.
“Having disagreements is one thing, but manipulating the relationship for electoral aims is another,” France said while calling Italy's behavior the worst of its kind since World War Two when Benito Mussolini declared war on France in 1940.
Relations between the two neighbors have grown tense since Di Maio and Salvini came to power since the two have frequently taken aim at Macron and France over their migration policy.
Macron has been critical of Italy's refusal to accept boats of migrants and has also voiced concerns about Rome's public finances, but things escalated earlier this year when Di Maio accused France of spreading poverty in Africa.
Salvini also accused Paris of exploiting the unrest in Libya to help benefit the oil company Total, which competes with Italy's ENI.
He also said he was hoping Macron's party would lose in the European elections this year.
Macron attempted to diffuse the harsh rhetoric during a visit to Egypt in January, calling the Italian leader's comments "insignificant."
The French leader also said he was only dealing with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was caught on camera talking about the tensions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.
Italian TV channel La 7 broadcast footage which included Conte confiding in Merkel that Di Maio was attacking France since he was down in the polls and needed a foil before May's European elections.
“They are very worried because Salvini is at about 35 or 36 percent and they’re going down to about 26-27 percent,” Conte said to Merkel.
“So they say what are the issues that can help us during the campaign... In the political campaign our friend is Germany and so we had to do the campaign against France,” he said.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Gregorio Borgia
