'We won’t take lessons from Macron!' Salvini blasts 'colonial' France over Libya turmoil

But one diplomatic source has suggested Mr Salvini’s intervention may in part be because he fears being “upstaged” by coalition partner Luigi Di Maio. Relations between Italy and France, traditionally close allies, have grown frosty since the far-right League and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement formed a coalition last year and took aim at pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron. France’s Foreign Ministry and the French president’s office declined to respond immediately.

On Monday France summoned Italy’s ambassador after Mr Salvini’s fellow deputy prime minister Mr Di Maio, accused Paris of creating poverty in Africa and generating mass migration to Europe.

Backing up Mr Di Maio, Mr Salvini said France was looking to extract wealth from Africa rather than helping countries develop their own economies, and pointed particularly to Libya, which has been in turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that overthrew strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Mr Salvini told Canale 5 TV station: “In Libya, France has no interest in stabilising the situation, probably because it has oil interests that are opposed to those of Italy.”

A French diplomatic source said it was not the first time that Mr Salvini had made such comments and that it was probably because he felt he had been upstaged by Mr Di Maio.

The source added that the accusation was baseless and reiterated that French efforts in Libya were aimed at stabilising the country, preventing the spread of terrorism and curbing the migration flows.

Italy’s Eni and France’s Total have separate joint ventures in Libya, but Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi denied in a newspaper interview last year that there was any conflict between the two firms in the north African state.

Mr Salvini is head of the Lega Nord, while Di Maio leads 5-Star. 

Both are campaigning hard for European parliamentary elections in May and are eager to show they have broken with the consensual politics of centre-left and centre-right parties.

The two men have repeatedly targeted neighbouring France and accused Macron of doing nothing to help handle the hundreds of thousands of mainly African migrants who have reached Italy from Libya in recent years.

Asked about the latest diplomatic spat with Paris, Mr Salvini said on Tuesday: “France has no reason to get upset because it pushed away tens of thousands of migrants at the French border, abandoning them there as though they were beasts. 

“We won’t take any lessons on humanity from Macron.”

Speaking yesterday, Mr Di Maio attacked France’s Africa policy – the latest chapter in a war of words between Rome and Paris since the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and far-right League won power last year.

He said: ”If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, and France in particular, have never stopped colonising Africa.

“If France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. 

“Instead it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.”

In response, France’s foreign ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador, with a French diplomatic source saying: “It’s not the first time the Italian authorities have made unacceptable and aggressive comments.”

source: express.co.uk