On his visit to Italy Tuesday, French president Emmanuel Macron meets with Pope Francis, but not Italian PM Giuseppe Conte, highlighting bilateral strains over the migrant issue while inviting criticism from French secularists, reports FRANCE 24.
Macron has called for stronger ties between the state and the Catholic Church, a move critics said blurred a line that has kept French government free of religious intervention for generations.
The issue is particularly sensitive in historically Catholic France, where matters of faith and state were separated by law in 1905 and which is now home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities.
His visit also comes at a time of intense strains between Italy and France over the migrant crisis as the EU heads for a tense summit later this week.
Macron's rocky relationship with Italy's ruling populists worsened this weekend when far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini blasted the French president's "arrogant" stance on immigration.
Salvini further accused Macron of hypocrisy for criticising his hardline approach while France continues to "push back women, children and men" across the border back into Italy.
Macron, who argues that France has taken in more asylum seekers than Italy this year as the massive influx across the Mediterranean has slowed, hit back: "We won't take lessons from anyone."