Foreign Affairs

Italian Prime Minister Prepared To Cancel France Visit After Macron Denounced Italy For Refusing Migrants

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The new Italian prime minister is prepared to cancel his upcoming visit to Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Italy for refusing to allow stranded migrants to enter the country, according to La Stampa Tuesday.

Giuseppe Conte, 53, the new prime minister of Italy as of June 1, said that he is ready to skip his visit to Paris after France called out Italy for refusing entry to migrants aboard a rescue ship called the Aquarius in the Mediterranean earlier in June, according to La Stampa. Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini demanded that the ship full of 629 migrants turn around and instead go to Malta. Spain ended up taking in the migrants. However, Italy received backlash from France, including Macron’s spokesman Gabriel Attal saying that he wants to vomit over the Salvini’s handling of the Aquarius, according to Le Monde.(RELATED: Italy’s New Prime Minister Stresses Eurosceptic Ideas In First Speech To Parliament)

“Spain wants to report us, France says that they are ‘vomiting.’ I want to work peacefully with everyone but with principal,” Salvini wrote in a tweet Tuesday, in response to European countries’ horror over Italy’s handling of the Aquarius. Salvini also included a hashtag reading #primagliitaliani or “Italians first.”(RELATED: Italy’s New Interior Minister Demands Boat Carrying Migrants To Turn Around)

La #Spagna ci vuole denunciare, la #Francia dice che sono “vomitevole”. Io voglio lavorare serenamente con tutti, ma con un principio: #primagliitaliani. https://t.co/BfbPXRB87N

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) June 12, 2018

President Donald Trump met Conte at the G7 Summit in Canada over the weekend, according to The Local Italy. He called the Italian politician a “really great guy.” He also accoladed Italians’ voting decision saying that “he will do a great job – the people of Italy got it right!”