Macron’s ‘go-it-alone’ raises eyebrows

Commitment to work with EU in question

PARIS, July 30, (AFP): France’s Emmanuel Macron, a europhile who celebrated his election to the strains of the EU’s anthem “Ode to Joy”, has caused surprise by going it alone on migration and picking a protectionist fight with top ally Italy, observers say.

Two controversial announcements Thursday -- one by the French president, one by his government -- have led Macron’s commitment to working with his EU partners on solutions to shared problems to be called into question. The first was on migration. During a visit to a refugee shelter Macron announced that France would set up migrant processing “hotspots” in Africa, including in war-torn Libya, with or without the support of other EU member states.

“We’ll try to do it with Europe but we in France will do it,” he declared -- his aides later conceding that the scheme was “not possible at the moment” because of Libya’s dire security situation.

In Brussels, officials were caught off guard by the unilateral plan aimed at preventing migrants piling into rickety boats bound for Europe.

European Commission sources said they had received assurances that France’s position was “completely aligned” with that of the bloc -- but they still ruled out migrant centres based outside the EU of the type mooted by Macron. No sooner had that foray by France’s crusading new leader been digested

under the terms of a European arms reduction agreement.

Pence plans to attend the drills and address participants on Tuesday.

The United States has spoken favourably of the idea that Georgia might one day join NATO, something Russia firmly opposes. (RTRS) than his government antagonised Italy by announcing the nationalisation of a shipyard that had been promised to a state-run Italian firm.

Rome, already smarting over being sidelined by Macron on a ceasefire deal in its former colony Libya, reacted with fury to the move which stood in stark contrast to the anti-interventionist message that Macron hammered home on the campaign trail.

Macron insisted the move was temporary until the two sides reached a deal on joint ownership of STX that protected French jobs and assured Italy would play a “major role” in the shipbuilder.

But Italy was seething.

Basis

“Nationalism and protectionism are not an acceptable basis on which to conduct relations between two leading European countries,” Italy’s finance and economic development ministers fumed.

Italy’s centrist Corriere della Sera newspaper said the affair had revealed Macron as “a nationalist”, while Germany’s Handelsblatt economic daily said it “cast a new light on his commitment” to Europe. “How can Europe be united if a European partner is not considered a reliable shareholder?” Handelsblatt wondered, referring to the jobs argument put forward by France.

But in France at home the first nationalisation since 1981 was widely cheered,

Reporter attacked by loggers:

Two men believed to be loggers attacked a television crew filming in a Polish forest on Saturday and injured a cameraman, smashing his camera and seizing his memory cards, police and the TV station said.

Polsat News, the private broadcaster, said the suspects also tried twice to run over the cameraman. giving its youngest ever leader a boost after polls showed his ratings tumbling over his planned spending cuts.

Le Monde newspaper called it a “well-timed political act” that would help him win back support on the left.

“But Mr Macron is tarnishing his European image somewhat,” it noted.

A former government adviser said Macron’s EU flag-waving during the campaign masked a belief that Europe served chiefly to enhance France’s standing. “He is committed to the European ideal, but far less so than to French sovereignty,” the adviser, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP, adding: “Having good relations with Angela Merkel doesn’t change that.”

For Francois Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Macron is a man in a hurry, who brings to mind ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy. “Like all new presidents he’s discovering his powers and giving into the temptation to use them to the max,” Heisbourg said.

So far Merkel and other EU leaders have embraced the Frenchman’s can-do approach and been content to let him play the role of Europe’s top diplomat with US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But Stefani Weiss, director of the Brussels office of the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation, warned Germany was starting to “look a little frustrated by this energetic president who is juggling a lot of balls.”

The Bialowieza Forest, one of Europe’s last primeval woodlands and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is at the center of a heated political dispute over large-scale logging ordered by the country’s conservative government. Environmentalists and the European Union vehemently oppose the logging.

On Friday, the European Court of Justice ordered an immediate suspension of the logging in Bialowieza, which is also protected under EU law.

Police said they detained two male suspects, aged 22 and 47, hours after the attack Saturday. Police said their preliminary investigation indicates that the suspects work for a company involved in the logging. (AP)

Ivory Coast man stabs bus driver:

A man from the Ivory Coast who faced expulsion from Italy for previous aggressive behavior stabbed a public transit bus driver Saturday in the Tuscan city of Siena, causing a serious injury, police said.

Police said the man retrieved a knife from a home for asylum-seekers where he previously resided after an apparent argument with the bus driver at the end of the line. He returned to stab the driver twice in the stomach and once in the arm. The driver was in serious, but not life-threatening, condition, police said.

The man was known to authorities for previous aggressive behavior and had lost the status of asylum-seeker, police said. He was being housed by a Catholic charity pending his expulsion. (AP)