“We are very lucky to have a President of the Republic (Sergio Mattarella) and a Prime Minister (Mario Draghi) so courageous, pro-Europeans and friends of France”: so the French President, Emmanuel Macron, on the occasion of the joint press conference in Paris with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen for the launch of the French presidency of the European Union. Macron responded to a question about the Quirinale, adding immediately: “I am not in the habit of commenting on domestic political issues, including in a friendly country like Italy”.
Then the president replied to a question about the political consequences of the recently signed Italian-French bilateral treaty. “Friendship with Germany does not detract from friendship with Italy and vice versa: I make it simple, the more we work in three (France-Germany-Italy – ed) the more we will be useful, so we will multiply the initiatives with Italy and we will multiply the initiatives to three when it is possible ». “The Quirinal Treaty covers a very wide range of fields”, he added, “it is a very intimate cooperation that completes and strengthens the friendship between the two countries. As for three-way relationships, we know that this is a ‘complicated’ dimension, but as regards the European dimension it is a useful dimension “