Macron’s war on Rome

France took unprecedented action against a fellow founding member of the EU last week when it recalled its ambassador from Rome in protest at “repeated, baseless attacks” on President Macron’s government by Italian leaders. The tipping point had been a surprise meeting in France between Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), and members of France’s gilets jaunes movement, which has mounted (often violent) protests against Macron. “The wind of change has crossed the Alps,” Di Maio tweeted afterwards, later saying that the gilets jaunes had given birth to a “new Europe”.

The French foreign ministry said this “unacceptable” incident was one of several provocations by Italy’s populist coalition in recent months. And in a clear reference to Italy’s populist leaders, a government spokesman criticised “the nationalist leprosy” eating away at Europe’s unity.

What the editorials said

This is the first time France has recalled its ambassador from Italy since Mussolini declared war in 1940, said Le Monde (Paris). But Italy’s flagrant breach of diplomatic rules left no alternative. By meeting gilets jaunes leaders, Di Maio was guilty of “active interference” in France’s domestic affairs. Relations were tricky even before the populists took power in Rome last year, said the FT. As champions of a strong state, the French have never been easy with the “unruliness” of Italian politics. Conversely, Italians often resent what they see as France’s unmerited sense of superiority: blocking the flow of refugees from Italy, for example, even as they give preachy lectures on “tolerance and openness”. The French “love to show off”, said Libero (Milan). “They’re smug even when they’re weak.”

Alas, we’re going to have to get used to these kinds of rows, said Il Sole 24 Ore (Milan). The long process of European integration that began with the creation of the Common Market in 1957 is now threatened by the rise of nationalism, and divisions in Europe are only going to grow more sharply.