Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

What Macron’s spat with Italy is really about

Who needs the Comédie-Française when there is Emmanuel Macron in the Élysée? France’s recall last week of its ambassador from Italy for consultation was pure theatre on the part of the president. And it was a decision more for the benefit of his domestic audience than for the coalition government in Rome.

In a statement explaining why Christian Masset had been ordered home, the foreign office said that for several months France has been subjected to outrageous statements that have created a ‘serious situation which is raising questions about the Italian government’s intentions towards France.’

France blamed the recall on Luigi Di Maio, the Italian deputy prime minster, who flew to Paris last week to meet members of the Yellow Vest protest movement. After the meeting, the leader of the anti-system Five Star Movement uploaded a photograph of the meeting on to social media and declared that ‘the wind of change has crossed the Alps’. It was a silly stunt from Di Maio, one which revealed his political naivety, and also his desperation to boost his party’s flagging fortunes within the coalition.

France’s European affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, said that the decision to recall the Ambassador was ‘not about being dramatic…[but] about saying ‘playtime is over.”

Her words were soon contradicted by government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, who declared that France doesn’t indulge in ‘snide’ remarks, before rather undermining that claim by saying ‘we can beat back the nationalist leprosy, populism, the mistrust of Europe.’

Macron first used the ‘leprosy’ metaphor last June, a description that infuriated Matteo Salvini, Italy’s other deputy prime minister, who has distanced himself from Di Maio’s antics. Nonetheless, the leader of the right-wing League regards Macron as the incarnation of EU hypocrisy; the president talks of the importance of European solidarity but frequently acts in France’s best interest.

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