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BARI, Italy — French President Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni traded barbs at the G7 summit in southern Italy in the wake of a European election that left the Italian prime minister strengthened and Macron’s camp weakened.
Meloni accused the French president of using the G7 forum for electioneering when Macron criticized Italy for reportedly watering down language on abortion rights in the draft statement.
“I believe it is profoundly wrong, in difficult times like these, to campaign using a precious forum like the G7,” Meloni said on Thursday evening according to Italian media.
According to several diplomats, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, Meloni requested removal of a reference to “safe and legal” abortion in the final statement, instead settling on referring to a previous G7 statement.
On Thursday, Macron needled Meloni over abortion rights on the sidelines of talks, telling reporters he “regretted” removal of the abortion language.
“You don’t have the same sensibilities in your country,” Macron told an Italian journalist. “France has a vision of equality between women and men, but it’s not a vision shared by all the political spectrum.”
Macron hinted at the French election, saying that the clash on women’s rights takes place at a time “when French voters are asking themselves questions.”
At a dinner on Thursday evening, Meloni also appeared to recoil when the French president kissed her hand as he arrived at a Swabian castle in Brindisi.
The Italian prime minister denied that Italy was reticent on defending abortion rights and argued that G7 communiqués can just refer to previous statements when it comes to topics such as this one.
The Italian government also denied reports that Italy pushed to withdraw language on LGBTQ+ rights from the conclusions of the summit, which was also attended by Pope Francis.
The French president caused dismay when he called a snap election in the wake of a stunning defeat in Sunday’s European election. The far-right National Rally finished first in the European Parliament election in France, with 31.4 percent of the vote — more than double the 14.6 percent received by Macron’s party.
On the contrary, the European Union election was a success for the Italian prime minister, whose Brothers of Italy party came in first with more than 28 percent of votes.
French people will vote in a two-round parliamentary election on June 30 and July 7.
Tensions between Macron and Meloni are nothing new. The two have clashed on topics ranging from managing migration flows to Meloni’s exclusion from Franco-German initiatives on Ukraine. They have also, however, worked together at times.
They clashed back in February, when Macron skipped a G7 video conference organized by Meloni on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead attending France’s biggest agricultural show amid farmers’ protests.
Meloni’s positions on fundamental rights has been a source of Franco-Italian tensions since she came into power, when French officials said they would monitor closely whether fundamental values and the rule of law are respected in Italy.
Meloni has never publicly questioned the right to abortion in Italy, although some of her allies have pushed for measures to discourage women to undergo abortions.
