Merkel, Macron talk Euro army

DONALD TRUMP HAS MOCKED THE IDEA Force will be a symbol of a united continent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were due to meet in Berlin yesterday in a show of unity against rising populism in the era of US President Donald Trump.

At their second meeting in a week, the two are expected to once again raise the idea of establishing a European army as a symbol of a united continent, a proposal that has raised Trump’s hackles.

Macron’s visit comes a week after world leaders met in Paris to commemorate the end of World War I a century ago and marks Germany’s Day of Mourning for victims of war and dictatorship.

After a wreath-laying ceremony, Macron was to address the German parliament, housed in the glass-domed Reichstag still bearing the scars of World War II, in the first speech by a French leader to the assembly in 18 years.

Macron and Merkel, who were to meet for talks, are both committed pro-Europeans who have resisted rising populist, eurosceptic, and anti-immigration forces in Europe, as well as Trump’s isolationist “America First” stance. As the world has remembered World War I, which ended a century ago this month, Macron has repeatedly invoked its horrors to drive home the message that rising nationalism is again destabilising the world.

Macron and Merkel have proposed a European army that would operate within Nato, an idea Trump has mocked by tweeting that “it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France?”

But German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen insisted yesterday that a joint military force would need not just common equipment and training but also “the political will to resolutely defend European interests when a conflict breaks out”.

And France’s Minister for European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, said: “It is not a question of being against the United States but of taking our destiny into our own hands to no longer count on others.”

While strong on symbolism, the Franco-German partnership and European reform push have been plagued by policy differences and the domestic troubles of the two leaders.

Since a Franco-German joint cabinet meeting on Europe in June, challenges have piled up with Brexit nearing and a budget conflict escalating between Brussels and Italy. – AFP

Picture: AFP DISAGREEMENTS. French drivers seething over high fuel prices have vowed to snarl traffic across the country on Saturday in a widely supported protest that could prove the trickiest so far for French President Emmanuel Macron.