Italy and France Have Found Something New to Fight About
(Bloomberg) -- Feuding neighbors took up cudgels again after an Italian former junior minister went to work for the French government.
Sandro Gozi, Italy's junior cabinet minister for European affairs from 2014 to 2018, on Sunday officially joined the office of French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe as an adviser on European affairs. He quickly drew the ire of populists in the coalition government back in Rome.
On Wednesday, Italian Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said he finds it “disquieting” Gozi is now working for another nation, adding he could be stripped of his citizenship for doing so.
“You represent and serve the Italian state and then at some point you betray it and enlist for a different government,” Di Maio said. “We have much in common with France, but we also have conflicting interests.”
Under Italian law, the government can ask Italians who have accepted to work for a foreign state or institution to give up their role, and strip them of citizenship if they refuse to comply.
“Are we crazy?” Gozi said when asked for a reaction. “This is the European Union.”
He said any attempt to strip him of his citizenship would violate EU treaties, as well as laws making it illegal for any country to make its citizens stateless.
Philippe's office didn't respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.
Frequent Clashes
Italy's coalition government emerged from 2018 elections that swept out a mainstream administration closely allied with French President Emmanuel Macron's vision of greater European integration. Clashes began almost instantly.
Di Maio has blamed African emigration on French economic policies and has met with members of France's Yellow Vests protest movement. The other Italian vice-premier, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, has sparred with Macron more frequently, over migration.
Wednesday's outburst from Di Maio, at an event in Rome about youth job training, came as France, Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy agreed to share 131 migrants rescued by an Italian coast guard ship in the Mediterranean.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net;Alessandro Speciale in Rome at aspeciale@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Caroline Alexander, John Follain
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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