The head of the populist Five-Star Movement Luigi Di Maio on Thursday praised prime minister Giuseppe Conte for refusing to attend an migration mini summit in Brussels this week if the conclusions were written in advance by France and Germany.
"Italy is finally gaining respect in Europe and the world. Keep up the good work Prime Minister!" read a Facebook post by Di Maio, who is labour and industry minister as well as deputy premier.
Di Maio's post came after Conte tweeted that he had received a phone call from Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel saying there had been "a misunderstanding" and summit conclusions drafted by Germany and France and circulated on Wednesday had been shelved.
Conte had warned Wednesday that he could not attend the Brussels meeting given the draft text, which appeared to prioritise Germany’s concerns about migrants illegally crossing European Union borders, over Italy’s longstanding demand that the burden of migrant arrivals be shared evenly across the bloc.
Italy - a major arrival state - will refuse to take back from other EU countries asylum-seekers who registered there when they first , Conte said after meeting EU Council president Donald Tusk in Rome on Wednesday.
Merkel is hoping to persuade other EU leaders on Sunday to further curb immigration and restrict the movement of asylum seekers within the bloc in a bid to stop her ruling coalition from crumbling at home amid demands from her Christian Social Union (CSU) partners for a bloc-wide plan to spread more widely across the EU the burden of hosting asylum seekers.
Ten countries including Italy and Greece - the other major arrival state - as well as France, Austria, Bulgaria, the Netherlands are attending Sunday's summit which comes ahead of the 28-29 June summit of EU heads of state and government, at which migration will be a key focus.
