the spread of "the leprosy of populism," seen as a clear reference to the two populist parties now in power. On Jan. 29, he said, "Italy deserves leaders worthy of its history."

In return, Salvini, the Italian interior minister, said on his Facebook page in January that Macron is "a very bad president. He governs against his people!"

French President Emmanuel Macron has been critical of Italy's two deputy prime ministers for their populist views. ( Ludovic Marin/Pool via Reuters)

The French attitude to refugees and migrants infuriates the Italian government. It says that since 2017, the French government has tightened border controls and turned back 60,000 refugees and migrants, forcing Italy, which has already received hundreds of thousands, to take care of them. Macron and his government, it says, arehypocrites.

And also good targets in the run-up to the elections for the European Parliament.

And afterwards?

Well, the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, is already calling for calm. In this he has an unlikely ally — Matteo Salvini. The day after the French recalled their ambassador, he invited the French interior minister for talks in Rome.

France has sometimes had difficulty taking seriously these Italian outbursts. They're just seen as theatre. But the farce has gone on long enough and she wanted to show that there is a limit to her patience. - Sébastien Maillard of the Jacques Delors Institute

"Our two countries have long enjoyed solid bilateral relations," he said, "particularly concerning security, terrorism and immigration."

A French expert on Italy, Sébastien Maillard of the Jacques Delors Institute, dismissed the crisis with