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France hopes for better relations with new Italian government

France is hoping for more constructive relations with Italy's new pro-European government, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday.

Published: 8 September 2019 16:06 CEST

France hopes for better relations with new Italian government

Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP

“This government appears more… determined to have positive relations with France, more open also to implementing shared migratory policies,” Le Drian told French radio stations.

“We are ready to talk about it,” he added.

Italy's new coalition between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was sworn in last Thursday.

The former coalition between Matteo Salvini's far-right League party and the M5S headed by Luigi Di Maio was hostile to Paris in its 14 months in government.

Salvini accused French President Emmanuel Macron of showing “arrogance” and “hypocrisy” on immigration matters.

Le Drian said Sunday he has written to Di Maio, his new counterpart appointed last week. “I hope we will have more constructive relations with Italy,” Le Drian said.

“Everyone sees there is a new deal, that we are no longer trading insults and posturing. We are willing to act together within the European Union,” the French minister said.

Asked about the political fate of Salvini, who caused the collapse of the previous Italian government, Le Drian said: “There are times when some politicians, as we have seen with Mr. Salvini, see themselves as stronger than they are, and they make mistakes.”

“I'm not sure (Salvini) will return to power”, he added.

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France and Netherlands ink deal on Caribbean 'footrace frontier'

Around 400 years ago, two groups of runners — one Dutch, one French — are said to have set off from the same point on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin to trace the border between their nations.

Starting from a bay on the east coast and running in opposite directions, the runners in 1648 eventually met on the west coast of the island, with a straight line between the two points forming the international border ever since.

According to the legend, the Gallic runners were faster, handing France by far the larger share of the roughly 90-square-kilometre (35-square-mile) tropical paradise, which they called Saint Martin.

The Netherlands took the southern part, which they named Sint Maarten, with the athletic feat and the peaceful coexistence of the two colonial powers leading to the territory being dubbed the “friendly island”.

The agreement was signed for France on Friday by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and for the Netherlands by Silveria E. Jacobs, prime minister of the autonomous government of Sint Maarten.

“This historic agreement will help facilitate the process of rebuilding the island, which was severely affected by Hurricane Irma in 2017,” the French interior ministry said in a statement.

The text of the agreement “preserves the principle of free movement of goods and persons established by the Concordia accords of March 23, 1648”.

READ ALSO: Tropical French territory battles green monkey invasion

The agreement also “establishes a joint monitoring commission charged with monitoring and maintaining the border” which had been disputed at its eastern end.

“It illustrates the quality of the friendly relations between France and the Netherlands, eager to reinforce their trusting cooperation on the island of Saint Martin,” it said.

It stressed “the shared desire of the territorial council of Saint Martin and the autonomous government of Sint Maarten to continue to develop their close ties and their joint projects of cross-border cooperation,” it said.

Darmanin is due to travel to Saint Barthelemy, the other island in the north of the French Caribbean.

The island of Saint Martin is divided in two, with a French community in the north and a state under the Dutch kingdom in the south, Sint Maarten.

France’s half of Saint-Martin became a French overseas territory in its own right in 2007, having previously belonged administratively to Guadeloupe, France’s biggest possession in the Caribbean.

It had a population of just over 32,000 in 2020.

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