After the heated controversy of recent days, there is a wait for the summit today, at lunchtime, in Paris, between the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the Council, Giuseppe Conte.
“The case is closed, now the Dublin Treaty must be changed. The solution of the immigration issue cannot be just an Italian problem. "Today we will discuss it", said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The turning point after a phone call between the same Conte and French President Macron last night. "There is time for emotions and time for work to tackle important issues such as the migration crisis", said the French Minister of European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, adding: "We need to talk with Italy, it is a great partner, a great neighbor". And defines the telephone conversation between the two "cordial".
The meeting after President Macron's accusations against Italy on the Aquarius case that have sparked bitter controversy, with harsh criticism of the Elysée coming from the same government led by En Marche. The Minister of Economy Giovanni Tria had thought of writing the new chapter of the crisis, canceling the meeting with his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire. Interior Minister Salvini, in a passage of his speech to the Senate: "France apologize or Conte does not go". But Macron himself thought about the hypothesis of a solution to the crisis between the two countries, who in the course of a meeting about the Aquarius case, without ever mentioning Silvani, however, said: "I do not apologize to those who provoke ". Not even the summoning of the French ambassador to the farnesina had served to calm the spirits, indeed. The Foreign Minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, who had summoned the French ambassador, instead found the 'number 2' of the embassy, Claire Anne Raulin, in her place. This was followed, at the end of the meeting, by a very harsh note from the Farnesina, in which the declarations used "even at the government level, in Paris" were defined as "unacceptable" and raised the risk that "relations" between Italy and France: "The tones used are unjustifiable", taking into account the efforts of Italy and the fact that for months it has publicly denounced the unsustainability of the situation and the inaction of European partners. Moavero asked Paris for "suitable initiatives to heal" the tear. From France, however, a note of a few lines had arrived, without any hint of an apology. The Quai d'Orsay limited itself to recalling that Paris is "committed to dialogue and cooperation with Rome" on immigration and is "perfectly aware of the weight of the migratory pressure on Italy and of the country's efforts". The reasoning at Palazzo Chigi was too little to consider the accident closed.
Meanwhile, the crisis between Italy and France on the migrant chapter continues to shake things up in the rest of Europe as well, with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who extends his hand to Salvini, prefiguring "an axis of will" between ministers of the interior of Austria , Germany and Italy against irregular immigration. Kurz spoke after a meeting in Berlin with the German Interior Minister, Horst Lorenz Seehofer, the Bavarian of the CSU, hawk in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The project of Chancellor Kurz, a popular who governs in Vienna with the far right, would also involve other European countries, including Denmark, and on paper it provides for the creation of "common centers" for migrants already rejected or who cannot access to the right of asylum, centers to be created outside the borders of the Union. According to the Austrian press, one of the countries already identified would be Albania. Austria has taken over the EU presidency since July and the chancellor stressed that this is a national initiative. The idea of the Vienna government had already been received with caution by the EU, which has always supported a common plan on migration policy rather than national initiatives as preferable. But governments, frightened by the electoral success of those who feed fear to gain consensus, continue to move in no particular order. A drift that Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to counter by calling for a "common European solution". And the German Foreign Minister echoes it, calling Italy "a pillar" of the EU.