How Italy’s populists stepped up their war with Macron

The war of words between the governments of Italy and France escalated last week, after Italy’s deputy Prime Ministers, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, gave their support for the gilets jaunes movement against French President Emmanuel Macron.

The two sides have repeatedly come to blows over all manner of issues, from immigration to economics, via a whirlwind of thinly veiled insults. But the latest move marks a changing dynamic between the two sides; a once confident and resplendent President Macron now finds himself on the back foot, whilst the Italian leadership, emboldened, have begun to assert themselves across Europe, even to the point of inserting themselves into the affairs of other countries.

Di Maio and Salvini broke all precedent by backing the protest movement, urging them not to ‘give up’ in the face of a ‘president who does not serve his people’ in separate statements last weekend.

It prompted a fierce response from Paris, with French minister for European affairs Nathalie Loiseau suggesting Italy needed to ‘get its house in order’ before criticising the French government.