Demands Apology From Macron
Italy Summons French Envoy in Refugee Row
ROME (Dispatches) -- Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday that without an "official apology" from France, a planned meeting between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday should be cancelled.
"If an official apology doesn't arrive, Prime Minister Conte would be right not to go to France," Salvini told reporters after demanding that France take in more migrants.
Macron had blasted Italy for its "cynicism and irresponsibility" in refusing to welcome 629 refugees left stranded on a French charity's rescue ship in the Mediterranean before Spain agreed to take them in.
Gabriel Attal, the spokesman for Macron's party, called Italy's actions "nauseating".
Italy's Foreign Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi summoned the French ambassador to Rome over the comments on Wednesday, saying in a statement that "the Italian government considers unacceptable the words publicly pronounced yesterday in Paris".
Milanesi added that the comments made by France were "compromising relations between Italy and France".
Salvini's far-right League party campaigned on taking a hardline on refugees ahead of March's election and rose to power as part Italy's euroskeptic, populist government that took office this month.
Also on Wednesday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that the hardline interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy have formed an "axis of the willing" to combat illegal immigration into the EU.
Salvini said France had taken in only a fraction of the 9,816 refugees it had pledged to welcome under a 2015 EU relocation plan to relieve frontline countries Italy and Greece of the burden of caring for newly arrived refugees.
"So I ask President Macron to pass from words to action and tomorrow morning welcome the 9,000 France promised to welcome as a sign of concrete generosity and not just words," Salvini said to applause in the Senate chamber.
Salvini has accused European aid groups of essentially operating taxi services for Libya-based human traffickers, and has said Italy will now refuse their rescue ships entry. Italian maritime vessels, however, are still docking in its ports: on Wednesday, an Italian coast guard vessel docked in Catania, Sicily with 932 migrants aboard.
Macron had blasted what he called Italy's cynicism and irresponsibility in turning away the Aquarius, which is operated by the humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee and the French-founded Doctors Without Borders.
"If an official apology doesn't arrive, Prime Minister Conte would be right not to go to France," Salvini told reporters after demanding that France take in more migrants.
Macron had blasted Italy for its "cynicism and irresponsibility" in refusing to welcome 629 refugees left stranded on a French charity's rescue ship in the Mediterranean before Spain agreed to take them in.
Gabriel Attal, the spokesman for Macron's party, called Italy's actions "nauseating".
Italy's Foreign Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi summoned the French ambassador to Rome over the comments on Wednesday, saying in a statement that "the Italian government considers unacceptable the words publicly pronounced yesterday in Paris".
Milanesi added that the comments made by France were "compromising relations between Italy and France".
Salvini's far-right League party campaigned on taking a hardline on refugees ahead of March's election and rose to power as part Italy's euroskeptic, populist government that took office this month.
Also on Wednesday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that the hardline interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy have formed an "axis of the willing" to combat illegal immigration into the EU.
Salvini said France had taken in only a fraction of the 9,816 refugees it had pledged to welcome under a 2015 EU relocation plan to relieve frontline countries Italy and Greece of the burden of caring for newly arrived refugees.
"So I ask President Macron to pass from words to action and tomorrow morning welcome the 9,000 France promised to welcome as a sign of concrete generosity and not just words," Salvini said to applause in the Senate chamber.
Salvini has accused European aid groups of essentially operating taxi services for Libya-based human traffickers, and has said Italy will now refuse their rescue ships entry. Italian maritime vessels, however, are still docking in its ports: on Wednesday, an Italian coast guard vessel docked in Catania, Sicily with 932 migrants aboard.
Macron had blasted what he called Italy's cynicism and irresponsibility in turning away the Aquarius, which is operated by the humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee and the French-founded Doctors Without Borders.