Financial Times | 28.07.2017
The nationalisation of STX heightens the sense of betrayal in Rome
Emmanuel Macron’s election was welcomed across Europe as a victory over populism and a chance to breathe new life into the European project. Nowhere were these hopes felt as keenly as Rome, where a government threatened by the Eurosceptic Five Star Movement looked to the French president for solidarity in managing migration and support against the eurozone’s fiscal hawks. Two months on, a sense of betrayal is evident.
It is already clear that, while Mr Macron may share Italian goals on eurozone fiscal and budgetary policy, his priority will be relations with Berlin. This much was perhaps inevitable, but there are other sources of friction.
As the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean continues, France is still turning back those who seek to cross the border from Italy and refusing rescue boats entry to its ports.