The Italian Ambassador to France, Emanuele D'Alessandro, was summoned to the country's Foreign Ministry "after unacceptable statements" by Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the anti-immigrant party "League" Matteo Salvini about the French president, AFP reports. The agency cited a diplomatic source and earlier on France Inter radio.
During his recent trip to Milan, in response to a question about the possibility of sending Italian troops as part of the contingent in Ukraine planned by the "Coalition of the Willing" led by Britain and France, Salvini responded that French President Emmanuel Macron should "go there himself" - put on a helmet and take up arms. Salvini also called Macron "crazy" and said he was pushing Europe towards war with Russia.
Italy is part of the "Coalition of the Willing", but Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also said, in more diplomatic terms, that Rome had no intention of sending troops to Ukraine.
The Italian ambassador to the French Foreign Ministry was told that Salvini's words "are at odds with the climate of trust and the historical relations between our two countries [...], which is also reflected in the strong coincidences of positions [...], above all with regard to the unwavering support for Ukraine," AFP quoted its source as saying.
Until the start of the full-scale war, Matteo Salvini was known for his pro-Russian position (or at least his rhetoric) on many issues: he called the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 legal, visited the peninsula himself, visited Russia more than once in the following years and advocated the lifting of sanctions.