Italy: The ties between the two members of the European Union have become tense amid political rifts over the issue of refugees and illegal migration.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has voiced hope that the French people will not choose the party led by French President Emmanuel Macron in the EU elections.
A day earlier, Salvini, leader of the right-wing League governing in a coalition with the 5-Star Movement, said his issue was not with the French people but “with Macron, who talks a lot and achieves little, who give lessons of generosity and then rejects thousands of migrants at the Italian border”.
Salvini further stated that he hoped French voters would send Macron a message during the European elections in late May by showing their support for Marine Le Pen, with whom Salvini is allied in European politics.
Since the right-wing League and 5-Star Movement parties formed a coalition in Italy, they have taken aim at Macron’s pro-EU party En Marche (On the Move), according to Reuters.
Relations between the two countries grew tense over the migrant issue in June when France criticized Italy for not accepting the Aquarius rescue vessel carrying over 600 migrants. Rome, in turn, blamed Paris for forcing migrants who had come to France to return to Italy, a country that has become the first landing point for many migrants arriving from North Africa by sea.
SPUTNIK
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