Italy is playing good cop, and this stuff is just for public consumption. When all the trash talking stops being useful for Italy’s EU masters, the trash talking will cease. Or the EU will let a couple of Italian banks fail. And since the Italians have done absolutely nothing to get their own financial house in order, that threat will work nicely for the EU.
Talk is cheap.
Conte, a lawyer with little political and no governmental experience, was nominated by the far-right League leader, Matteo Salvini, and the head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), Luigi di Maio – both of whom are now his deputy prime ministers.
In his first speech to lawmakers since being sworn in, Conte reaffirmed several of the coalition’s key manifesto themes, including a tough line on migrants, rejection of economic austerity and conciliatory gestures towards Moscow.
The Italians are sick of France and Germany pushing their migrant policies on them and the rest of the EU.
France recalled its ambassador to Italy on Thursday amid rising tensions after Italy's deputy prime minister met with French anti-government protesters and Italian leaders made critical public comments about French President Emmanuel Macron's government.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio met with supporters of France's yellow vest protest movement running as candidates for the European Parliament. Di Maio has said the populist 5-Star Movement he leads was ready to help the French protesters and has accused France of fueling Europe's immigration difficulties.
That came after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini called Macron "a terrible president" in January. He said he hoped French voters would send Macron a message during the European elections by showing their support for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, with whom Salvini is allied in European politics.
Von der Muhll called the incidents an "unacceptable" interference in French democracy, and said they were unprecedented since the two neighbors joined together after World War II to help create the European Union.
"The campaign for the European elections cannot justify the lack of respect for each people or for their democracy," she said.
In response to France's move, Salvini said he was open to meeting with Macron and the French government, but insisted that France must stop sending back migrants at the border and stop penalizing Italian workers in France.
Di Maio had already sparked annoyance in January when he accused France of leading colonial-style policies in Africa, prompting the French Foreign Ministry to summon the Italian ambassador. And the Italian government last fall accused France of dumping underage migrants over the border without authorization. After meeting with members of the Citizens' Initiative Rally group of yellow vests on Tuesday, Di Maio boasted on Twitter that "the wind of change has crossed the Alps."
Migrants on a dinghy in the Mediterranean after they tried to reach Europe from Libya. Last year Macron accused Italy of 'irresponsibility' for refusing to take a boat full of migrants in
Last year Macron accuses Salvini of 'cynicism and irresponsibility' for turning away a boat, the Aquarius (pictured), which was carrying hundreds of migrants