While we rat on about Brexit - France today withdrew its Ambassador from Rome over their tussle about a massive long list of grievances.
From the NYT:
It has happened rarely between European Union allies, and not between France and Italy since the start of World War II. But on Thursday, after months of barbed commentary from Italian leaders, the French government said it had had enough: It recalled its ambassador from Rome.
“This is without precedent since 1940, when Mussolini declared war,” said Marc Lazar, a leading specialist of Franco-Italian relations who teaches at universities in Paris and Rome. “This is very, very harsh. There’s never been anything comparable.’’
The grave step not only demonstrated the breakdown of relations between France and Italy, two founding members of the European Union. It also reflected the mounting strains at Europe’s core, brought on by populists who are now overreaching in their attempts to denigrate the bloc and forge anti-European alliances across borders.
The list of insults, particularly on the Italian side, has grown long, and progressively more outrageous as the Italian populist leaders try to score political points at home by attacking backers of the vision of a united Europe — the French president, Emmanuel Macron, first among them.
But the final straw appears to have come on Tuesday, when Italy’s deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, the political leader of the populist Five Star Movement, met in France with a leader of the Yellow Vest protesters who have besieged Mr. Macron’s government with violent protests.
Mr. Di Maio, the political leader of the Five Star Movement, and Alessandro Di Battista, a rabble rouser who many consider the party’s leader-in-waiting, posted a picture on their social media pages of a meeting near Paris with Christophe Chalencon, an organizer of the Yellow Vest movement from the south of France who has called for civil war.
From the NYT:
It has happened rarely between European Union allies, and not between France and Italy since the start of World War II. But on Thursday, after months of barbed commentary from Italian leaders, the French government said it had had enough: It recalled its ambassador from Rome.
“This is without precedent since 1940, when Mussolini declared war,” said Marc Lazar, a leading specialist of Franco-Italian relations who teaches at universities in Paris and Rome. “This is very, very harsh. There’s never been anything comparable.’’
The grave step not only demonstrated the breakdown of relations between France and Italy, two founding members of the European Union. It also reflected the mounting strains at Europe’s core, brought on by populists who are now overreaching in their attempts to denigrate the bloc and forge anti-European alliances across borders.
The list of insults, particularly on the Italian side, has grown long, and progressively more outrageous as the Italian populist leaders try to score political points at home by attacking backers of the vision of a united Europe — the French president, Emmanuel Macron, first among them.
But the final straw appears to have come on Tuesday, when Italy’s deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, the political leader of the populist Five Star Movement, met in France with a leader of the Yellow Vest protesters who have besieged Mr. Macron’s government with violent protests.
Mr. Di Maio, the political leader of the Five Star Movement, and Alessandro Di Battista, a rabble rouser who many consider the party’s leader-in-waiting, posted a picture on their social media pages of a meeting near Paris with Christophe Chalencon, an organizer of the Yellow Vest movement from the south of France who has called for civil war.
