Antonino Galofaro (correspondent in Italy) / Photo credit: Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP
This first bilateral meeting on Tuesday between the President of the Italian Council and Emmanuel Macron will be an opportunity to discuss the disagreements between the two countries, particularly regarding immigration. After months of tension, Giorgia Meloni seems to want to calm relations with France.
Nine months after her election as head of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni will be received at the Élysée on Tuesday afternoon. This meeting has been repeatedly postponed. Franco-Italian relations have not been good in recent months. In what state of mind does the President of the Council of Ministers go to the palace on Tuesday?
Prioritize dialogue
Giorgia Meloni seems to be in a spirit that is both optimistic and constructive. She wants to calm relations with Paris after months of tension. For this, she is ready to forget the many attacks that her government has suffered from ministers of Emmanuel Macron. She knows it, in Europe, it is better to be allied with Paris.
The two capitals are already aligned on issues such as the war in Ukraine or the reform of the stability pact. On other issues, a source of tension such as immigration and the refoulement of migrants at borders, Rome now wants to favor dialogue. Giorgia Meloni has understood that in Europe, she is more likely to receive support from Paris than that, for example, from Budapest, her ally Viktor Orbàn excluding any solidarity and refusing to welcome the migrants saved by Italy.