French papers highlight Renzi-Valls 'tortellini pact'

After two premiers and other European leftists meet in Bologna

(ANSA) - Paris, September 8 - Premier Matteo Renzi and his French counterpart, Manuel Valls, were on the front pages of leading French papers Monday after they entered into a so-called "tortellini pact" on Sunday.

Renzi invited leftist European leaders to the Democratic Party (PD) Festa dell'Unità (Unity Feast) in the northern Italian city of Bologna on Sunday, where he called on them to enter into a pact to promote a socialist agenda in Europe in front of a plate of tortellini. "Under the Bologna sun, Manuel Valls put his entente with Matteo Renzi center stage," wrote daily Le Monde. "Manuel Valls shows himself in Italy at Matteo Renzi's side, Le Figaro newspaper headlined. "They share a will to reform, but with different methods".

Financial daily Les Echos said "Valls has become a Renzist" since the French left saw its approval ratings plummet after a string of scandals. "Valls has gone to Bologna in search of a glimmer of hope on Renzi's ground".

Spanish Socialist party leader Pedro Sanchez, Party of European Socialists leader Achim Post and Dutch Labour Party MP Diederik Samson also participated in the tortellini pact, as Renzi dubbed it.