Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called off a trip to Paris on Thursday, saying the French interior minister had insulted Italy with comments that were highly critical of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The French minister, Gerald Darmanin, had earlier told RMC radio that Meloni was "unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected" and accused her of "lying" to voters that she could end a crisis over growing numbers of boat migrants.
France swiftly issued a statement in which it sought to reassure Rome of its willingness to work closely with Italy, but it was not enough to persuade Tajani to catch his plane. It was the latest in a series of clashes between Paris and Rome since Meloni took office last October at the head of a nationalist, conservative government which has a very different world vision to that of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Meloni's Brothers of Italy party and its coalition partner, the League, pledged a tough crackdown on illegal migrant entries in last year's election campaign and on Thursday parliament approvedDarmanin compared Meloni to the far-right French leader Marine Le Pen, a political foe of Macron. "The extreme right has a vice. That of lying to the population," he said.
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