Italia-France, summit scheduled for April postponed to June

The Franco-Italian summit that was to be held in early April with Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni will be postponed until after the G7 summit in Evian in mid-June. Afp writes this, confirming what has already been anticipated by the Sole 24 Ore in recent days. The postponement request was reportedly presented to Macron by Meloni on the sidelines of the EU summit in Belgium on 12 February. Meloni proposed that the high-level meeting, which was to be held on 9 and 10 April in Toulouse, be held after the G7 meeting on 15-17 June in France, on the shores of Lake Geneva.

President Emmanuel Macron's entourage explained that Paris would comply with Italy's requests, "taking into account the president's strong desire to promote an ambitious Franco-Italian relationship, as witnessed by the Quirinal Treaty concluded by Mario Draghi with the support of President Sergio Mattarella". Il Sole 24 Ore had been pointing out for days that the dates of 9-10 April were in doubt. This year's bilateral summit comes in a context of nervousness between the two governments, partly also due to personal difficulties between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Macron. Palazzo Chigi was pointing out that the last rift provoked by Italian comments on the killing of right-wing activist Quentin Deranque in Lyon "is already a closed case".