French President, Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, have buried the hatchet at a meeting in the French presidential palace on June 20 where they reached agreement on all the topics they discussed.
In ‘normalising’ relations between the two countries after they fell out over migration, Meloni said Italy and France are “two interconnected countries, two important and crucial nations”. She added that the two nations are “protagonists in Europe and now, more than ever, need to dialogue because we have many common interests”.
Issues they talked about ranged from the necessity to stop the migrant influx into Europe from North Africa, to increased military support for Ukraine against Russia. Meloni’s visit marked an improvement in relations between France’s liberal government and Italy’s newly elected right-wing government.
Macron praised the “good work and coordination between the two countries” concerning migration and how they need to “work better with the countries of origin and transit in order to avoid incoming flows”.
His remarks came after a boat full of hundreds of migrants sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece last week, leaving scores dead and many more missing. The tragedy has pressured the European Union to find a common solution to the ongoing migration crisis.
The meeting between Meloni and Macron follows Meloni’s visit to Tunisia earlier this month with President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. They were there to initiate a new package deal for financial support for the Tunisian government in its efforts to try to control migrant flows. The EU establishment appears to be leaning towards the right-wing populist standpoint that migration needs to be tackled in transit countries and countries of origin.
Meloni’s visit to France comes a few weeks after Italy and the French government fell out when Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, cancelled a visit to Paris. That was because Gerald Darmanin, the French Interior Minister, had criticised Italy and its “far-right” government for what he said was its failure to manage migration. Darmanin infuriated the Italians by stating that Meloni was “incapable of resolving the migration problems for which she was elected”.
That was in part a reference to the fact that the Meloni government’s hard-line migration policies included stopping NGO ships from disembarking in Italian ports. Meloni claims such vessels carrying asylum-seekers merely helped human traffickers thrive by providing the ‘last ring’ of a human trafficking chain that seeks to exploit migrants by making them pay a fee to try to reach Europe.
Tensions between Italy and France reached their peak in autumn last year when France said it had been forced to accept the vessel Ocean Viking with 234 people on board after Italy had refused to take it.
At yesterday’s meeting, the two countries also found common ground over military aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. “There is no doubt that Italy and France will continue to support Ukraine as long as this is necessary,” Meloni said, adding: “[Without supporting Ukraine] we would be facing a much more chaotic world, a world in which war is coming closer to home. What the Ukrainians are doing is also defending our freedom.”
Meloni and Macron also announced the deployment of an anti-missile system provided by Italy and France to be used in Ukraine. Macron said the SAMP/T, or Mamba system, “is now deployed and operational in Ukraine, protecting key installations and lives”.
Alessandra Bocchi is Associate Editor at Brussels Signal
