'Darmanin did not mean to ostracize Italy' - Paris

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 5 - French government spokesman Olivier Véran on Friday played down the latest spat between France and Italy over migration management, saying Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had "no desire to ostracize Italy".
    On Thursday Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani cancelled a trip to Paris to see his French counterpart Catherine Colonna after Darmanin said earlier in the day that Premier Giorgia Meloni was incapable of solving Italy's migrant problems.
    Tajani described the comments as "unacceptable".
    "There was no desire to ostracize Italy in any way and I want to reassure the Italians who are watching us," Véran told CNews on Friday, adding that he did not want to make it "a political controversy".
    The spokesperson said Paris continues "to work with the Italians", who "want to be left (free) to make their own choices".
    "That's perfectly fine because we are not going to do otherwise," continued Véran, adding that Italy "admits many, most of the (migrant) boats" and "then we work systematically with the Italians on redistribution rules." "So, we are intimately linked by our history, by our economic, social, cultural, but also migratory challenges," he concluded.
    (ANSA).