Even short, this move "is important on the merits and the symbolic," says the French Presidency. Italy received French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday (18 September) for a quick visit, the aim of which is to relaunch Franco-Italian relations after a year of tensions with the leaders of the previous ruling populist coalition.

The French president spends only one evening in Rome, for an interview with his counterpart Sergio Mattarella and a working dinner with the head of government Giuseppe Conte, recently renewed at the head of a new executive where the Movement 5 Stars (M5S ) is this time associated with the Democratic Party (center left).

The purpose of this visit is, for the two neighboring countries, to end a war of words, even invective, having marked the 14 months during which the alliance between the sovereignist League of Matteo Salvini and the unclassifiable 5 Stars headed the peninsula.

Privileged target of Matteo Salvini, Emmanuel Macron had been blasted by the former Minister of the Interior, who denounced the "arrogance" and "hypocrisy" of the French president in immigration.

The M5S leader, Luigi Di Maio, caused a serious diplomatic crisis in February when he went to France to meet some minor representatives of the yellow vests.

"Nationalist leprosy"

In this war of words, Emmanuel Macron pitted against the Italian government by making Matteo Salvini his "main opponent" or lambasting "nationalist leprosy".

In Rome, Emmanuel Macron will not meet Luigi Di Maio, who became Foreign Minister.

With Giuseppe Conte, the topics of discussion will not miss, from the European agenda, with the arrival of the new Commission, to Libya, via the economic relations.

While Italy negotiates in Europe the organization of a system of "automatic distribution" of the rescued migrants in the Mediterranean, to go out of the case by case, Giuseppe Conte should evoke with the French leader a series of requests of Italy coming from in addition.

Among them are the sanctions for European countries that refuse to integrate the device, the distribution of not only asylum seekers but also economic migrants, the rotation of landing ports which should also integrate French ports.

Emmanuel Macron hardened the tone on immigration

Closed to NGOs rescuing migrants, Italian ports have opened up in recent days, including leaving 82 migrants from the Ocean Viking on the island of Lampedusa.

For his part, Emmanuel Macron hardened the tone on Monday immigration, calling the parliamentarians of his majority and his government to the firmness to avoid being "a bourgeois party" which ignores the opinion of popular classes seduced by the far right.

A message that will find an echo in Italy, a country that has long felt isolated to face the migration crisis, and where the sovereignist party of Matteo Salvini, after having imploded the previous coalition, and left the power, is still very popular in the country and credited with 34% of the voting intentions.

With AFP