ROME (Reuters) – Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has threatened to cancel a trip to Paris on Thursday unless France clarifies comments by the French interior minister that were critical of Italy’s prime minister, an official said.
The French minister, Gerald Darmanin, told RMC radio earlier that Italian leader Giorgia Meloni was “unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected” and accused her of “lying” to voters that she could end the crisis.
News of his comments came as Tajani was preparing to fly to Paris to see French counterpart Catherine Colonna – a trip that was aimed partly at improving relations between the two European Union countries that have grown increasingly fractious.
An Italian government official, who declined to be named, said the trip would not go ahead without a “decisive and definitive” clarification from France on Darmanin’s “offensive and totally unacceptable” statement.
A French government source said they were trying to find a way to diplomatically reverse the comments by Darmanin, who is seen as particularly close to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Italy has seen a surge in migrant arrivals since Meloni took office late last year. More than 42,400 people have landed in Italy so far in 2023, against around 11,220 in the same period last year.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer in Rome and John Irish and Tassilo Hummel in Paris, editing by Mark Heinrich)
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