Borne urges “peaceful dialogue” with Italy due to criticism from Paris on immigration

May 5. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, has urged this Friday for “peaceful dialogue” with Italy in the context of the recent tensions with the country as a result of comments by the head of the French Interior Ministry, Gérald Darmanin, about the incapacity of Giorgia Meloni to manage the migration crisis.

“I would like to emphasize that Italy is an essential partner of France, that our relationship is based on mutual respect and that we will favor consultation and peaceful dialogue to continue working together”, he explained at a press conference with the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander DeCroo.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, has asked the French Government this Friday to apologize for the criticism made on Thursday by Darmanin on account of Italian immigration policy, since he considers that it was “a vulgar and gratuitous insult”. a “stab in the back” of a high official from the neighboring country.

The French Foreign Ministry already appealed in a statement previously to the collaboration and “mutual respect” between the two countries. In Tajani’s opinion, the statement is “insufficient”, for which he has demanded a clear apology for words for which “there are no excuses”.

“There is nothing that I can no longer say justify, but at least explain this attack. It is a gratuitous and vulgar insult to a friendly, ally country, whose institutional leaders are in perfect harmony”, Tajani stressed in an interview with ‘Il Corriere della Sera’.

Tajani has confirmed that his counterpart, Catherine Colonne, has contacted him, “to tell him that she was sorry” in a contact that he has described as “very cordial” but about which he has not given details because it is a conversation ” private”.

In statements to RMC, Darmanin equated the “extreme right-wing government”, led by Meloni, with the theses of Marine Le Pen in France, in response to some proposals from the National Grouping party to take measures on the Franco-Italian border, where the French government also has recognized a constant migratory flow.