Matteo Salvini has accused France of “stealing wealth” from African countries in the latest salvo in the spat between Paris and Rome over Europe’s migration crisis.
The head of the anti-migration League party on Tuesday followed the lead of the Five Star Movement, his coalition partner, in linking France’s colonial history in Africa to the influx of refugees into Europe.
“In Africa there are people who steal wealth from the population. France is obviously among them,” Mr Salvini said in an interview on Italian television. “In Libya France has no interest in stabilising the situation because it has oil interests opposite to those of Italy.”
He added: “Let us not take lessons from France which in recent years has rejected tens of thousands of migrants at the border [between France and Italy], including women and children.”
Mr Salvini’s comments marked a further deterioration in French-Italian relations since he and Mr di Maio formed a collation government last year.
Emmanuel Macron in 2017 likened the rise of populist politics across Europe to “leprosy”, while Mr Salvini has repeatedly attacked the French president for what he argues is a hypocritical approach to the flows of migrants from north Africa entering southern Europe.
On Monday France summoned Teresa Castaldo, Italy’s ambassador to Paris, after Mr Di Maio accused France of continuing to “colonise” African countries.
“If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, France in particular, have never stopped colonising Africa,” Mr Di Maio said at a Five Star event on Saturday.
“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.”
This month Mr Di Maio prompted a furious reaction from Paris by pledging his support to the gilets jaunes protesters, saying his party would provide them with assistance.
In response Nathalie Loiseau, the minister for European affairs, said Italy “should learn to clean up their own home”.
The worsening relations between Paris and Rome have also seen politicians within Mr Salvini’s League threaten to block the loan of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci to the Louvre in Paris for an exhibition celebrating the 500 years since the artist’s death.
