EU leaders say Trump worries them as rhetoric becomes policy

VALLETTA, Malta — European Union leaders on Friday vowed to remain united and defiant in the face of an onslaught of criticism from the new American president that has started to undermine the once-unshakeable trans-Atlantic relationship.

And they hit back in an increasingly grating battle of words, underscoring how they fear that Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric will be turned into policy and further tear apart their troubled bloc.

This week EU chief Donald Tusk moved the US into a “threat” category for the EU, following several negative comments about the 28-nation bloc.

“Maybe the best evidence that we are together in this context was the fact that some of my colleagues have used a new nickname for me, spontaneously, which is ‘our Donald’,” Tusk said Friday at an EU summit in Malta, highlighting the new divisions in the century-old alliance with the US.

French President Francois Hollande said it was unacceptable that Trump could put pressure on the EU through his declarations. And Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite pointed out that it was almost impossible to build a bridge with Trump because “today we’re communicating with the United States mainly on Twitter.”

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that “Trump must be judged by his actions and not by his rhetoric and his election campaign. But now he has delivered enough actions that are worrying.”

“What has happened in the last few days are really not the values I’m fighting for,” Kern’s Luxembourg counterpart, Xavier Bettel, said.

Trump has questioned the NATO alliance linking North America and Europe, calling it “obsolete,” and hopes for a major EU-US trade deal have already taken a deep dive amid worries of new US protectionism under the Trump slogan “America first.”

Adding insult to injury, Trump called the British decision to leave the EU – the most cathartic event in the bloc’s 60-year history – “a tremendous asset and not a tremendous liability.”

For France and Germany, there is only one solution to facing an unpredictable partner.

“Many countries have to realize that their future is first in the European Union, rather than who knows what bilateral relation with the United States,” said Hollande.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “the more strongly we are clear about how we define our role in the world, the better we can tend our trans-Atlantic relations.”

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni saw a “great opportunity” for the EU if the Trump administration turns out to be largely domestic-focused, leaving the way open for Europe to be what he called the “No. 1 trade superpower in the world.”

“The question the EU must pose itself is – can it play a more relevant role than what it’s has played up till now internationally?” Gentiloni said, adding that included being more engaged in defense.

He said an EU summit in Rome next month could be the occasion to rise to the challenge.

And even if Gentiloni said trans-Atlantic relations would survive, it didn’t take away the worries that have been increasing by the day since Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Even though Trump has spoken on the phone with Merkel, Hollande, Tusk and hosted British Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington, Europe keeps searching for how to understand the new American leader.

“Who knows what the president of the United States really wants (on NATO)?” Hollande said of the military alliance uniting most EU member nations with the United States.

As much as some leaders and diplomats are saying that the cornerstones of the EU-US relationship remain intact, the bad vibes are seeping through the ranks of the EU’s member states.

On Friday, the Portuguese parliament voted to condemn Trump’s US travel ban on Muslims and highlighted the United States’ important role in promoting tolerance and human rights.

In Sweden, Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin posted on Facebook a photo of her signing the country’s new climate law while surrounded by seven female staff members. Swedish media noted it resembled photos of Trump in the Oval Office surrounded by only male advisers. –Raf Casert and Frances D’Emilio

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Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

French president denounces third ‘terrorist’ act in 18 months

PARIS—French President Francois Hollande said Friday that an attack which saw a truck plough into a crowd in Nice, killing 80 people, was clearly a “terrorist” act.

There was a sense of deja vu in France as the visibly moved president took to the airwaves to address a nation once again in mourning.

If confirmed as an act of terror, the incident will be the third major attack on French soil in 18 months — with several smaller-scale jihadist killings also having taken place.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack in the resort city, Hollande vowed to strengthen his country’s role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

“Nothing will make us yield in our will to fight terrorism. We will further strengthen our actions in Iraq and in Syria. We will continue striking those who attack us on our own soil,” he said, in reference to the IS group.

Hollande said several children were among the dead after the attack, which he said was of an “undeniable terrorist nature”.

He vowed ever stronger security measures — calling up reservists and extending a state of emergency — as he reached for familiar, and new words to boost the morale of a battered nation.

“France is horrified by what has happened, this monstrosity which is using a truck to deliberately kill dozens of people who simply came to celebrate July 14.

“France was struck on its national day, a symbol of freedom,” said Hollande.

France “will always be stronger, I promise you, than the fanatics that want to strike it.”

The Islamic State group has repeatedly singled out France as a prime target for its military actions against the group in Iraq and Syria, and hundreds of jihadists have left France to go and fight in its ranks.

The country has been under a state of emergency ever since jihadists killed 130 in Paris on November 13, and the government has boosted its security laws.

Just hours before the attack Hollande said the state of emergency would not be renewed beyond July 26 after the adoption of a new law in May bolstering security.

However after the incident he said it would be extended for another three months.

While security forces will remain on high alert, Hollande also called on France’s “operational reservists” to boost the ranks of police and gendarmes.

These include French citizens with or without military experience as well as former soldiers.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Gunmen in Paris attacks killed

A total of eight militants were killed, including seven by their suicide belts, during Friday's attacks in Paris that left at least 120 dead, a source close to the investigation said.

Four of the attackers were killed in the Bataclan concert hall, three by activating their suicide vests and one shot by police, a report from agence France-Presse said.

Three more died near the national stadium and a fourth was killed in a street in eastern Paris.
"The terrorists who were not far from here were killed," Hollande said on television after visiting a security command centre near the Bataclan concert hall where the gunmen held people hostage before an assault by security forces.

Three of the attackers activated explosive belts while the fourth was hit by police fire, AFP added.

At least 100 people were killed in the concert hall. —with reports from Agence-France Presse and Reuters

Flash floods kill at least 13 on French Riviera

NICE - Flooding caused by torrential rain along part of the French Riviera has killed least 13 people, officials said Sunday.

The downpour hit the Alpes-Maritimes region, which lies at the eastern end of France's Mediterranean coast and borders Italy, on Saturday evening.

Eight people have been found dead and another five are missing, the government's local office said. President Francois Hollande had earlier said there had been at least 12 deaths.

The first victims were three people killed at a retirement home that was flooded in Biot, local officials said.

In the resort town of Cannes, which hosts the annual film festival, the train station was flooded, leading to the interruption of local rail services, while cars were swept along streets by torrents.

The flooding led to the closure of a local stretch of the A8 motorway and left thousands of homes without electricity.

In Nice, a soccer match between the town's team and Nantes for the French first division was abandoned midway due to the rain, while hundreds of people were stranded overnight at a concert venue after attending a show by French rock legend Johnny Hallyday. — Reuters

At least 11 dead in Paris shooting – French media

PARIS - Black-hooded gunmen shot dead at least 11 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a publication firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons lampooning Muslim leaders and the Prophet Mohammad, police said.

President Francois Hollande headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising France's security level to the highest notch.

"This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters.

Another 10 people were injured in the incident and police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage."

"About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs [rifles]," witness Benoit Bringer told the TV station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

France is already on high alert after calls last year from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack "sickening" and said Britain stood with France in the fight against terror.

"The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press," Cameron said in a statement on his official Twitter feed.

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.

The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria. — Reuters

Eurozone crisis is over - France's Hollande

TOKYO - The crippling debt crisis that has ravaged Europe for years is finished, France's President Francois Hollande has declared, despite high unemployment and lingering recession on the continent.

"You must understand that the crisis in the eurozone is over," Hollande told an audience in Japan during a three-day state visit.

Hollande's comments on Saturday came just a week after thousands of people took to the streets of European cities to vent their anger at the "troika" of international powers whose insistence on austerity is blamed for worsening their economic hardship.

There were angry scenes in Frankfurt near the European Central Bank, and in Spain and Portugal -- two of the countries that have received bailouts to help them plug fiscal holes.

The troika of international lenders -- the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank -- have imposed strict conditions on countries such as Greece and Portugal in exchange for bailout funds.

In Greece and Spain the unemployment rate has reached 27 percent, while Portugal's is forecast to climb to a record 18.2 percent this year.

The figures for youth unemployment are much higher.

Hollande, who was in Tokyo on the first state visit by a French president in 17 years, said Japan and Europe needed to cooperate to forge an economic partnership that would be good for both.

"I want to play a major role in getting an agreement between Europe and Japan," he said, a reference to free trade negotiations that have recently been given the nod.

A Japan-Europe partnership "would be economically good for Europe and good for Japan."

During his visit, Hollande was generous in his praise of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to reignite growth in the torpid Japanese economy, a policy dubbed "Abenomics", which he said Friday was "good for Europe".

The prescription blends big fiscal spending, easy money and structural reforms intended to make it easier to do business in Japan.

In the six months since Abe came to power, Japan's stock market has boomed and the value of the yen has slid, giving hope to the country's beleaguered exporters and sending his approval ratings soaring.

For some in austerity-weary Europe, Abe's recipe seems much more appealing than more of the same budget-cutting that Germany -- the continent's paymaster -- insists on.

On Saturday, Hollande said Japan and Europe face the same challenges and must follow the same path to regain confidence and boost growth.

"We must act quickly and efficiently," he told his audience. "This is what Shinzo Abe wants for Japan, this is what I want for France.

"If we work together in Europe and if you, the Japanese make an effort to participate in this new dynamic, together we can change things.

"Seeing Japan committed to a policy of growth is encouraging. We need stable, sustainable and controlled growth." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com