France stands in solidarity with
Italy over the flooding and landslide emergency in Emilia
Romagna and is ready to provide assistance, French President
Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet in Italian on Friday.
"Italy has been hit by floods and considerable damage. Whole
neighborhoods have been swept away. We think of the victims and
the families who have lost everything," tweeted Marco on the
sidelines of the G7 in Hiroshima.
"France is in solidarity. I have told Prime Minister Meloni that
we are ready to provide all useful assistance".
The tweet came against the backdrop of recent tensions between
the two countries over repeated French criticism of the Italian
premier's policies on migration.
The spat started after French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin
said Meloni was incapable of solving the migrant problems she
had campaigned on.
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani subsequently
cancelled a trip to Paris to see his counterpart Catherine
Colonna in protest at the attack.
Stéphane Séjourné, the secretary general of French President
Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, thein weighed in, saying
"Meloni does lots of rabble-rousing on illegal immigration: her
policies are unjust, inhuman and ineffective".
Meloni, however, dismissed the comments, saying Séjourné was
trying to use Italy for domestic political purposes.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
