Europe sets Trump straight

Leaders condemn his remarks, saying he is ‘betraying ... Western values’ by trivializing violence and racism.

BERLIN — President Trump’s about-face on whom to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, Va., prompted a fresh round of condemnations from political leaders across Europe, most of whom usually are reluctant to give any kind of long-distance advice or intervene in the domestic issues of a close ally such as the United States.

But Trump’s fresh assertion that “there is blame on both sides” for the deadly violence in Virginia stirred a strong reaction across the continent, especially in Germany, where there is precious little tolerance for hate crime and racism that recall its Nazi past.

“It’s insufferable the way Trump is trying to whitewash the right-wing violence of the thugs in Charlottesville,” said German Justice Minister Heiko Maas. “No one should be allowed to trivialize anti-Semitism and racism by neo-Nazis.”

Martin Schulz, the leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party who is trying to defeat German Chancellor Angela Merkel in next month’s election, went further, saying on Twitter: “You have to stand up and fight Nazis. What Trump is doing is extremely dangerous. Those who trivialize violence and hate are betraying our Western values.”

Merkel had earlier criticized Trump’s initial comments, saying, “It’s racist, far-right violence, and that requires determined and forceful resistance no matter where in the world it appears.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May, perhaps one of Trump’s few friends in Europe, also condemned his comments, in which he said leftist counter-demonstrators were also to blame for Saturday’s violence.

Speaking in Portsmouth, England, on a visit to a new aircraft carrier, May said, “I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them, and I think it is important for all those in positions of responsibility to condemn far-right views whenever we hear them.”

And in Ireland, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney tweeted, “So called whitesupremacy is horrible, racist hatred that should be called what it is and condemned.”