Category Archives: Emmanuel Macron

Covid: Austrians who pass antigen test to be exempt from lockdown

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Italy prepares for national lockdown over Christmas; Spanish minister warns of third wave

Austria is to enter a third lockdown from Boxing Day but will stage mass coronavirus tests in mid-January to determine who will be exempt from certain restrictions, the government announced on Friday.

Italy is preparing to outline new measures that could lead to a complete lockdown over the Christmas and new year period, while the Spanish government has warned of a possible “third wave” of infections.

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French president Emmanuel Macron tests positive for coronavirus

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Macron and several other European leaders who recently met him go into self-isolation

Emmanuel Macron has been diagnosed with Covid-19 after developing symptoms, the Élysée Palace has announced, forcing several other European leaders who had recently met the French president into self-isolation.

In a brief statement on Thursday, the palace said Macron had a PCR test as soon as the symptoms had appeared and would “self-isolate for seven days in line with the health protocol applicable to everyone”.

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Emmanuel Macron announces police reform consultation

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French president responds to angry protests and concerns force is losing public confidence

Emmanuel Macron has announced a national consultation on reforming the police amid concerns the force is losing the confidence of the French public.

The move comes after multiple allegations of police violence – several captured on film – in recent weeks and angry protests over a new law giving officers powers that critics say threaten civil and press freedom.

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France far from isolated in tough Brexit stance

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Paris’s concerns about UK demands are widely shared, analysts, politicians and EU diplomats say

Emmanuel Macron may be talking tougher than the rest of the EU27 as Brexit talks reach their endgame, but despite claims to the contrary in London and by a UK media that always enjoys pointing fingers across the Channel, France is far from isolated.

Headlines such as “Le bust-up” and “France derails Brexit talks” do not reflect European reality, analysts, politicians and EU diplomats have insisted, saying Paris’s fundamental concerns are widely shared across the EU27.

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Macron ‘shocked’ by video of French police beating black man

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President condemns ‘shameful aggression’ amid growing anger over apparently unprovoked assault

The French government is scrambling to dampen rising anger over footage showing police beating a black music producer in Paris, the latest in a series of acts of alleged police violence to rock the country.

Emmanuel Macron said a video of officers beating Michel Zecler in his studio was “shameful” and said that government would have to find a way to restore public confidence in the police force.

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Europe at odds over plan to ban Christmas ski holidays amid pandemic

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Germany, Italy and France in favour of resort closures but Austria and Switzerland fear economic damage

Governments are at odds over a Europe-wide plan to bar ski holidays over Christmas and new year, with Germany, Italy and France in favour but Austria and Switzerland reluctant to damage a sector worth billions to their economies.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Thursday joined Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in calling for a Europe-wide shutdown of winter sports until 10 January to avert a fresh coronavirus wave.

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Daniel Cordier, one of last heroes of French resistance, dies aged 100

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As secretary to the great resistance leader, Jean Moulin, he helped organise fight against Nazi occupation

One of France’s last remaining French resistance heroes Daniel Cordier, has died aged 100.

One of only two remaining Compagnons de la Libération, an honour awarded by France’s exiled wartime leader, Charles de Gaulle, to those who risked their lives to liberate France from Nazi occupation, Emmanuel Macron said there would be a national ceremony to honour his memory.

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Macron accuses English-language media of ‘legitimising’ violence in France

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  • French president says concept of laïcité is misunderstood
  • Macron accused of targeting Muslims in wake of terror attacks

Facing protests in the Muslim world over his response to terror attacks in France, President Emmanuel Macron phoned a New York Times media columnist to rail against “bias” in the English-language media and accuse some newspapers of “legitimising this violence”.

Related: Trump adviser says it 'looks like' Biden has won and predicts 'very professional transition' – live

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EU must assert autonomy in face of US-China dominance, says Macron

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French president says US election chance to pursue sovereignty amid rising populism

European leaders must not let up on efforts to construct an autonomous bloc that is capable of resisting the duopoly of China and the US, Emmanuel Macron has said in his first extended response to the US presidential election.

The French president said the US would only respect Europe if it was sovereign with respect to its own defence, technology and currency. Warning that US values and interests were not quite the same as Europe’s, he said: “It is not tenable that our international policies should be dependent on it or to be trailing behind it.” The same need for independence applied even more to China, he added.

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‘Great expectations’: how world leaders reacted to Biden and Harris’s election win – video

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Most world leaders rushed to congratulate Joe Biden on his election on Twitter, and spoke of 'hope' and 'expectation' in later statements.

Biden’s key foreign policy priorities are cooperation in the fight against coronavirus, a commitment to rejoin the UN Paris climate agreement and, more broadly, to promise a change in tone toward traditional US allies. 

Russia and China are yet to congratulate the president-elect, as the outgoing president, Donald Trump, is yet to concede defeat

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EU draft declaration sets out stricter rules on migrant integration

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Contentious statement includes edict on learning language of new home country

Migrants to Europe must learn the language of their new home countries and encourage their children to integrate in the light of the recent Islamist terror attacks, EU governments plan to say in a declaration drafted by France, Austria and Germany.

The contentious draft statement, due to be made by EU home affairs ministers on Friday, is being championed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who was accused by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of religious persecution after his recent warning of the dangers of Islamist separatism.

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Macron’s task is to show French Muslims they have a place in the republic | Catherine Fieschi

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The president must demonstrate that the secular state – with a subtle dose of multiculturalism – works for them

As a dual citizen of France and Canada, I never cease to be amazed by the depth of misunderstanding there is about French attitudes to religion. France’s shortcomings in its management of diversity are obvious – as are everyone else’s – but it is important to recognise some basic facts before pronouncing on them.

The first is that the principle of laïcité in France – the country’s particular brand of secularism – is more than posturing: it is a lived, sociological fact.

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France considers envoy to explain Macron’s ideas to Muslim states

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Move comes amid backlash over president’s views on secularism and freedom of expression

France is looking at appointing a special envoy to explain Emmanuel Macron’s thinking on secularism and freedom of expression in a bid to quell the anti-French backlash growing in some Muslim countries, officials have said.

The growth in anti-French sentiment also has the potential to deepen the already entrenched conflict between Macron and Turkey over Libya and oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

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Emmanuel Macron: violence not an acceptable response to cartoons of Muhammad – video

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Emmanuel Macron has defended the right of publishers to depict caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in France. 'I will never accept that someone can justify the use of physical violence because of these cartoons,' Macron said.

On 16 October, a history teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded outside his school near Paris after showing pupils two caricatures of Muhammad as part of a discussion about free speech.

The French president sought to calm anti-French protests in Islamic countries after the reprinting of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in an interview with Al Jazeera. Macron said he 'understands the feelings of Muslims about the caricatures'. But he said it was not his role as president to restrict freedom of expression when it caused offence

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Shooting of priest shocks France as two more held over Nice killings

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Police seal off area and make an arrest after Greek Orthodox cleric is seriously hurt in Lyon shotgun attack

French police were hunting a gunman who shot and seriously injured a Greek Orthodox priest in the city of Lyon yesterday afternoon.

The latest attack came two days after a terrorist killed three people at a church in Nice and two weeks after the beheading of a high school teacher.

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Mahathir Mohamad says his remarks after French attack were taken out of context

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Two-time Malaysian PM criticises Twitter and Facebook for removing his posts after the attack on Nice church

The former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has stood by his widely condemned comments on attacks by Muslim extremists in France, saying they were taken out of context. He also criticised Twitter and Facebook for removing his posts.

Mahathir, 95, sparked widespread anger when he wrote on his blog on Thursday that “Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”.

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Anti-France protests draw tens of thousands across Muslim world

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Demonstrations held in Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories and Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of Muslims in Pakistan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere joined protests on Friday over the French president Emmanuel Macron’s vow to protect the right to caricature the prophet Muhammad.

Demonstrations in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, turned violent as 2,000 people who tried to march towards the French embassy were pushed back by police firing teargas and using batons. Crowds of Islamist activists hanged an effigy of Macron from an overpass after pounding it with their shoes.

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Macron says France ‘will not give in to terror’ after Nice attack – video

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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Thursday that he would step up the deployment of soldiers to protect places of worship and schools after a knife attack in Nice in which three people were killed. Speaking from the scene, a defiant Macron said France had been attacked 'because of our values, our taste for freedom, the possibility there is here to believe freely'

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Emmanuel Macron orders France back into Covid-19 lockdown – video

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France will go back into a nationwide lockdown starting this week to try to contain the Covid-19 pandemic that is again threatening to spiral out of control, French president Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday. The new measures he announced – which come into force on Friday – will mean people have to stay in their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical attention or use their daily one-hour allocation of exercise.

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Turkey threatens legal action over Charlie Hebdo’s caricature of president

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French satirical newspaper depicted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his underwear

Turkey has threatened “legal and diplomatic” action against the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after it published a caricature of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on its latest front page.

The drawing described as “disgusting” by the Turkish leader and Ankara’s announcement that prosecutors have launched an official investigation into the publication have worsened already heightened tensions between the two countries.

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