Stronger relations between Italy and
France are in the interests of both countries, said Deputy
Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday, calling
for implementation of the 2021 Quirinal Treaty.
"We have a duty to strengthen relations with France, it is in
Italian interests to have good relations with France and in
French interests to have good relations with Italy," said Tajani
during a conference at Luiss Guido Carli university in Rome
titled 'Italy and Europe, the challenges between war and
immigration'.
"We need to move forward with implementation of the Quirinal
Treaty," he added in relation to the Treaty between the French
Republic and the Italian Republic for a Strengthened Bilateral
Cooperation, signed by then Italian Premier Mario Draghi and
President Emmanuel Macron at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on
November 26, 2021.
Tajani described France as a "great interlocutor" of Italy,
saying that all "the prerequisites are there" for strengthened
cooperation but that France must understand that "it cannot
withdraw into itself on matters of national interest". "France
is worried, Macron and the government are worried about the
growth of the far right and the far left, I would not want it to
be conditioned by the fear of losing: the fear of losing can
make you lose even more," said Tajani.
Relations between France and Italy have been strained in recent
weeks after French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni was incapable of solving the
migrant problems she had campaigned on, prompting Tajani to
cancel a trip to Paris to meet his French counterpart Catherine
Colonna on May 4.
Stéphane Séjourné, the secretary general of Macron's Renaissance
party, then weighed in, saying Meloni does lots of
"rabble-rousing" on illegal immigration and
saying her policies were unjust and ineffective.
Meloni and Macron subsequently patched things up during a
bilateral meeting at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and on
Monday Tajani said he believed the comments had been related to
"internal political events".
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