French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday admitted European passivity in the face of the escalating migrant crisis had exacerbated populist sentiment in Italy, but warned that the absence of EU solidarity did not excuse Rome’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. The young centrist said that while Italy’s populist leaders were quick to criticise the EU, they had offered no viable solution to the refugee crisis nibbling away at the bloc’s unity. “What is happening in Italy is our political doing, an absence of solidarity. But does this excuse its leaders’ xenophobic rhetoric? I don’t think so, because they have offered no concrete solution to the problems they denounce,” Mr Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors in Paris. “Italy is against the Europe which shows no solidarity on immigration, but it is for the Europe of structural funds, or so it seems when I hear some ministers speak,” he continued. Read more