French want Macron to leave office – Italian deputy PM

The president has been trying to boost his extremely low popularity with warlike rhetoric, Matteo Salvini has claimed

Some 80% of France’s population “can’t wait” for President Emmanuel Macron to leave office, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has claimed. Macron’s warlike rhetoric, including talk of sending troops to Ukraine, is aimed only at boosting his dwindling popularity at home, Salvini asserted.

The deputy PM made the remarks shortly after Paris summoned Italian Ambassador Emanuela D’Alessandro over his previous statements concerning Macron. Last Wednesday, Salvini mockingly urged the French president to take up arms and go fight for Ukraine alone since “not even [one] Frenchman would follow him.”

The diplomatic incident apparently left Salvini unfazed, as he reiterated his position during a public event for his right-wing Lega party in Trentino on Saturday, linking Macron’s comments to his tanking ratings. In an attempt to raise his approval, Macron “one day attacks [US President Donald] Trump, one day [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, one day [Israeli PM] Netanyahu, one day the Italian government,” he suggested.

“For months now, he’s been harping on about war, the nuclear umbrella, bazookas, missiles, and a European army. Do you know why? In my opinion, they cooked all this up because Macron’s popularity at home is at its lowest,” Salvini stated, adding that some “80% of the French can’t wait for Macron to leave.”

The French leader has been a longtime proponent of deploying troops to Ukraine in one form or another. Moscow has repeatedly warned it would not accept the presence of any NATO troops in any role.

Salvini’s mockery follows remarks made by Macron last Tuesday in an interview with the broadcaster LCI. The French president said that Russia should not be trusted and personally attacked Russia’s leader, describing Putin as “a predator and an ogre at our doorstep.” 

“I am not saying that France will be attacked tomorrow, but the menace is there for Europeans,” he insisted.

Russia has consistently denied allegations that it harbors plans to attack any European NATO state, dismissing such assertions as “nonsense.”

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