The French foreign ministry has summoned the Italian ambassador after Luigi Di Maio, the country’s deputy prime minister, blamed migrant arrivals on France’s ‘colonisation’ of Africa. Teresa Castaldo was summoned Monday, January 22, by Nathalie Loiseau, the cabinet chief of French European affairs, over the allegedly harsh comments reported by Ansa, the Italian news outfit, The Guardian reports.
Ansa reported that the remarks were “hostile and without cause given the partnership between France and Italy in the European Union”. This is said to be the most recent fight Italy has picked against France since M5S came to power in coalition with the far-right League in mid 2018. Di Maio has never quite forgiven the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for speaking about “populist leprosy” in a reported criticism of the Italian government shortly after it was formed. Earlier in January 2018, he urged France’s gilets jaunes, who have held several violent anti-government protests since early December, to “not give up”.
