France RECALLS ambassador to Italy
France recalls its ambassador to Italy over series of ‘provocations’ by leaders of the populist government ‘unprecedented’ since the end of WWII
- France has recalled its ambassador in Rome after ‘repeated accusations’ by Italy
- Officials in Paris accused Italy of ‘unfounded attacks and outlandish claims’
- It comes a day after France denounced a meeting between Yellow Vest protesters and Italy’s populist deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio
France’s foreign ministry said Thursday it had recalled its ambassador to Rome after a series of ‘provocations’ by leaders of Italy’s populist government.
It comes a day after Paris had furiously denounced Italy’s deputy PM Luigi Di Maio for meeting leaders of the French Yellow Vest protest movement.
Tensions have flared between the two countries since the Five Star Movement and far-right League party came to power in a coalition in Italy last June.
‘For several months France has been the subject of repeated accusations, unfounded attacks and outlandish claims,’ the ministry said in a statement today, calling them ‘unprecedented’ since the end of World War II.
France has recalled its ammbassador to Rome a day after Paris furiously denounced Italy’s deputy PM Luigi Di Maio (pictured) for meeting leaders of the French Yellow Vest protest movement
The ministry yesterday denounced as ‘unacceptable’ the meeting between Italy’s Di Maio and France’s ‘yellow vest’ anti-government protesters.
‘This new provocation is unacceptable between neighbouring countries and partners at the heart of the European Union,’ a ministry spokesman said in a statement a day after Di Maio met the protesters on French soil.
‘Mr Di Maio, who has governmental responsibilities, should ensure that he does not impair with its repeated interferences our bilateral relations, in the interest of both France and Italy,’ the spokesman said.
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Di Maio, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), announced on Tuesday he had met near Paris with yellow vest leader Christophe Chalencon and candidates on a yellow vest list for European Parliament elections in May.
He invited them and other yellow vests to a follow-up meeting in Rome, claiming on Twitter that ‘the wind of change has crossed the Alps.’
France denounced as ‘unacceptable’ the meeting between Italy’s Di Maio and France’s ‘yellow vest’ anti-government protesters (pictured, a protest in Paris last weekend)
Di Maio had already drawn Paris’s ire after he accused France of fuelling the migrant influx to Europe by continuing to ‘colonise’ Africa.
And De Maio’s fellow deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has lambasted President Emmanuel Macron directly by saying he is ‘close, with all my heart… to the French people, the millions of men and women who live in France under a terrible government and terrible president’.
The ‘yellow vest’ protests against fuel taxes began in rural and small-town France in late November, before ballooning into a wider revolt against Macron’s policies and governing style.
The French president is hoping to forge an alliance of pro-European centrists ahead of the bloc’s parliamentary vote, against a wave of populist movements in several European countries.
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