Attacking Italy is “unworthy”, the new face of French Gaullism tells us

“The Italian government has been left alone in the management of migratory flows, the French executive is looking for a scapegoat to compensate for its shortcomings,” Florence Portelli tells Il Foglio, after Minister Darmanin’s accusations

Paris. On April 21st, Florence Portelli, vice-president of Île-de-France and very loyal to former Gaullist candidate for the Elysée Valérie Pécresse, was seated in the front rows for the inauguration of the Italy pavilion at the Paris Book Fair. When she was called to the stage to greet the institutions of the Paris region, one of the main engines of the European economy, she stressed how proud she was to have Italian origins. “I am very proud of my multiple roots. Having French-Italian parents helped me to be open to the world. My name is Florence because my mother came from Tuscany, the land of Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch. I hope that this Book Festival will be an opportunity for the French to say to the Italians not only ‘we love you’, but also ‘we admire you’”. Also for this reason today Portelli, one of the freshest faces of Gaullism, finds the constant barbs towards Italy by the Paris interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, unbearable. “His repeated attacks on the Italian government are unworthy, because Italy has been left alone in the management of migration flows. The executive seeks the scapegoat elsewhere to compensate for its shortcomings, it is a way to mask its impotence ”, he tells Il Foglio.