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TEHRAN, Feb 13 - Italy's deputy prime minister Friday defended his unannounced trip to France to meet anti-government protesters there -- a move which has sparked fury in Paris and the biggest diplomatic crisis between the allies since World War II.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - In a letter to French daily Le Monde, Luigi Di Maio accused French governments on both the left and right of pursuing "ultraliberal" policies that have "increased citizens' insecurity and sharply reduced their spending power.
"This is why I wanted to meet with 'yellow vest' representatives... because I don't believe that Europe's political future lies with parties on the right or left, or with so-called 'new' parties that in reality follow tradition," he said.
The latter reference was a dig at President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move party, formed by the 41-year-old French leader in 2016.
"We have never stopped extending a hand to France," Di Maio said at a campaign event later Friday in Roccaraso, Italy.
"But if extending a hand means not being able to talk with any political force besides Republic on the Move, then I think this is a mistake."
Di Maio's meeting outside Paris with so-called "yellow vest" anti-government protesters -- candidates for upcoming European parliamentary elections -- was the latest in a string of slights in a row between Italy's populist leaders and Macron's centrist government.
The surprise trip drew a sharp rebuke from Paris, which on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Rome -- a move not seen between the two neighbors since the war, when Italy invaded.
"He will return to Italy. We're not suspending diplomatic relations with Italy," a senior French diplomat told AFP Friday.
But he warned "there could still be difficult moments ahead in the French-Italian relationship."
Source: AFP
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