Macron pours oil on troubled waters after Italians take offence at migrant criticisms

EMMANUEL MACRON, the French president, has said he never meant to cause offence by accusing Italy of “cynicism and irresponsibility” when it refused to take in a ship carrying hundreds of migrants.

Italy demanded an apology after Mr Macron berated the country’s new populist government for closing its ports to the Aquarius, a ship run by a French charity which had rescued 629 migrants in the Mediterranean. The migrants are now on the way to Spain after it offered to take in the survivors.

Mr Macron’s apology came after a telephone call on Wednesday night with Giuseppe Conte, the new prime minister of Italy.

The French president did not use the word “apologise” but his office said in a statement that he “stressed that none of his comments were intended to offend Italy and the Italian people”.

The statement said that a meeting in Paris between the two leaders would go ahead as planned today, despite earlier threats to call it off if Mr Macron did not make amends for his criticism of Italy’s attempt to force its European partners to better share the burden of mass arrivals of migrants.

They will discuss “new initiatives” on immigration, said the statement, which came a day after Matteo Salvini, Italy’s hardline new interior minister, announced an “axis” with Germany and Austria to fight illegal migration.

Mr Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant, hard-right League party, vowed during the recent election campaign in Italy to deport 500,000 migrants.

Bad weather yesterday forced the stranded Aquarius to change course, delaying its estimated arrival into Valencia by at least a day to Saturday night or Sunday morning.

NGO workers raised concerns about the impact of the gruelling voyage of those on board, among whom are seven pregnant women, 123 unaccompanied minors, and many suffering from dehydration, exposure or chemical burns.

More than 1.8million migrants have arrived in Europe since 2014, and Italy is now sheltering more than 170,000 asylum seekers, as well as an estimated 500,000 unregistered migrants. Under EU rules, migrants must apply for asylum in the European country where they first arrive, putting pressure on Italy and Greece, the main entry points for people fleeing war and poverty.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis weighed in to the row, demanding “a change in

mindset”. Speaking at a conference on migration at the Vatican yesterday, he urged countries to work together and “move from considering others as threats to our comfort to valuing them as persons whose life experience and values can contribute greatly to the enrichment of our society”.