by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The long and sometimes turbulent history between Italy and France is facing a new challenge as the two countries point fingers over policies on migration.
Italy and France are both among the six founding members of the European Union, charter members of the euro currency area. The countries share a border more than 500 km long, running from high in the Alps down to the Mediterranean. They share an affinity for top-level food and wine, fashion, and design. Both are rich in culture and history. Each country is the other's second largest trading partner. The two capitals -- Rome and Paris -- are each other's only sister city.
And now Italy and France are at opposite sides of a battle over the treatment of refugees.
When Italy turned the rescue ship away from its ports with 629 refugees aboard earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron was quick to criticize: "If the French coast had been the boat's closest shore it would have been allowed to dock."
Giuseppe Conte, Italy's new prime minister, eluded to France's own checkered past handling migrants in his response. "This country cannot accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have long preferred to turn their heads away on the immigration issue," Conte said.
Conte got unexpected support from Gerard Larcher, president of France's Senate, who said France's performance in the past put it in no position to take the high road on the issue.
Conte had threatened to cancel a Friday summit with Macron in Paris but the meeting went ahead as planned, with migration on the agenda as the central issue.
Discussions were complicated by a report released Friday by Oxfam, highlighting the plight of nearly 20,000 migrants languishing at the Italy-France border without adequate water, food, shelter, or counsel on their rights. Although border laws are generally not enforced between Western European countries, the report said nearly 40,000 poor migrants had been turned back trying to cross from Italy to France during the first eight months of last year, the latest figures available.
"This is quickly becoming the main issue between these two countries," Christian Blasberg, a professor of contemporary history at Rome's LUISS University, said in an interview. "There have been problems in the past, but the context changed completely with the election of Macron and then the new government in Italy."
Macron took office in May of last year, while the Conte government -- with support of the nationalist League and its anti-migrant leader Matteo Salvini -- was installed two weeks ago.
The countries have occasionally clashed in other areas.
They have fought alongside each other and as adversaries in different wars. Last year, there was a standoff that resulted in France nationalizing the STX shipyard near the city of Saint-Nazaire in order to prevent Italian port operator Fincantieri from taking it over. Earlier this year, French media giant Vivendi was pushed out of control of the board with Italian communications and Internet company Telecom Italia after trying to acquire a controlling stake.
"There's a kind of ping-pong relationship between the two countries," Rocco Panetta, an attorney from Rome's Panetta & Associati law firm, told Xinhua. "They're like brothers who know and understand each other well, but also know just how to infuriate the other."
LUISS's Blasberg said he did not believe the current situation would permanently damage relations between the two countries -- unless it becomes drawn out.
"I think it's in Salvini's hands," Blasberg said. "If this is making a point to get more help from the European Union and the international community, it may work. But if the government continues on this line, it could cause significant harm."
