Ghassan Salamé, UN special envoy for Libya, says country is viewed as a prize
The international community lacks the moral motivation to end the Libyan civil war, and largely views the country as a prize to be captured, Ghassan Salamé, the UN special envoy for Libya, said on Wednesday.
Salamé’s complaint came as one of the belligerents in the civil war, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, ruled out an immediate ceasefire in talks with the French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit
World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.
Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.
Continue reading...Sibeth Ndiaye is the plain-speaking communications guru who has been by the French president’s side since he was an ambitious minister. As she joins his cabinet, she talks about their political differences, les gilets jaunes, Brexit and racist attacks
During his rise to power, Emmanuel Macron, France’s youngest modern leader, was often seen surrounded by a close-knit group of identikit white male advisers in suits, fellow graduates of elite political schools, soon nicknamed “the Mormons” for their uniformity. But one woman stood out: Senegalese-born Sibeth Ndiaye, his media communications supremo. The straight-talking 39-year-old in a biker jacket played a key role in crafting Macron’s image as the change-making outsider; the man who built a new centrist party in order to fight the far-right Marine Le Pen, with his intriguing personal story as a gifted school pupil who married his drama teacher, Brigitte.
Often, when Ndiaye briefed the Paris media establishment on Macron’s policy ideas, she was the only minority ethnic person in the room. She remembers the exact moment Macron really understood how this felt. It was 2015, he was an ambitious economy minister in government under the Socialist president François Hollande, and she was organising the media scrum following him at an aviation show in a hangar north of Paris. But the police kept blocking her way. “Every time we got to a stand, the security cordon would stop me going through,” she says when we meet in her office. “Usually I’m incredibly strong in those situations. But this time – I don’t know why, maybe I was tired – I just cracked and I sat down and cried.” The local police chief stepped in and personally escorted her through the event.
Continue reading...President recognises protesters’ demands but vowed to still liberalise the economy
Emmanuel Macron has vowed to make his style of politics more “humane”, but insisted he would press on with his project to liberalise the French economy and overhaul its welfare state despite five months of demonstrations by gilet jaunes (yellow vest) anti-government protestors.
In his first press conference in two years as president, Macron promised €5bn (£4.3bn) worth of cuts to income tax for lower and average earners as well as pension rises for the poorest and vowed no more schools or hospitals would be closed during his presidency, as he responded to protests.
Continue reading...Yellow vest protesters angry over high taxes and inequality march in Paris days after blaze
Riot police and protesters have fought running battles in the centre of Paris as gilets jaunes anti-government demonstrators in fluorescent yellow vests led street marches over what they called “a crisis” of high taxes and economic inequality.
Less than a week after the fire that destroyed the roof and spire of Notre Dame Cathedral, firefighters rushed to put out multiple small fires around the Place de la République, as motorbikes, bins, bicycles and cars were set alight on roads and pavements. Groups of masked men threw projectiles and police fired teargas. Some rioters in masks smashed the window of a sports shop and ran in to loot it, emerging with bags full of goods.
Continue reading...French president postponed his address to the nation but the stakes have been raised
The broadcast was ready to go. Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation in response to months of protest and violence from the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement and the “great national debate” they sparked had been recorded that afternoon and was due to go live at 8pm.
Running to 26 minutes, it was, said Le Monde, “a make-or-break moment for the presidency and for this president, confronted […] with one of the most serious social crises the country has known for 30 years”.
Continue reading...Aerial footage reveals the extent of the damage to Notre Dame Cathedral after a fire tore through the 850-year-old structure. Up to 500 firefighters had battled to contain the flames on Monday evening. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has vowed to rebuild the Paris landmark within five years. The fire started at the base of the 93-metre spire and spread through the cathedral’s ribbed roof, made up of hundreds of oak beams, some dating back to the 13th century
Continue reading...In a televised address on Tuesday evening, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he wanted to see the Notre Dame Cathedral rebuilt within five years. French authorities have revealed that the historic building was ‘15 to 30 minutes’ away from complete destruction
Continue reading...Firefighters risked their lives to stop the raging fire spreading to the two belfry towers
Notre Dame Cathedral was within “15 to 30 minutes” of complete destruction as firefighters battled to stop flames reaching its gothic bell towers, French authorities have revealed.
A greater disaster was averted by members of the Paris fire brigade who risked their lives to remain inside the burning monument to create a wall of water between the raging fire and two towers on the west facade.
Continue reading...French president compared to De Gaulle as he seeks to get on with mission to change EU
Emmanuel Macron’s tough-guy stance at the EU summit – refusing the UK a much longer Brexit extension – was partly down to the French president’s personality, but his reasoning was political.
The 41-year-old, who stood for president without ever having run an election campaign then promised a grand plan to reform the European Union, is known for his impatience. He wants action. He likes to be centre stage.
Continue reading...Follow all the latest as the prime minister awaits the EU’s decision on a delay to Brexit
This is from the Telegraph’s James Crisp.
Theresa May has left the summit building for dinner. She is expected to return later.
France and Germany are understood to be at loggerheads over both the length of the extension and the conditions that the EU should put on a delay to Brexit.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is arguing that a short extension to 30 June is unlikely to provide enough time for the impasse in Westminster to be broken, and Berlin is seeking an extension until 31 December.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May’s talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, and MPs debating how long the article 50 extension should be
These are from my colleague Angelique Chrisafis in Paris.
Before Macron meets May, Elysee official insists any long extension would need ‘very strict guarantees’ that UK as an exiting state wouldn’t fully take part in or disrupt key decisions on future of EU eg commission head, budget. Would mean regular checks that UK abiding by this
Elysee source on length of possible Brexit extension: ‘we think one year would be too long’
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The battle for Europe is coming to a head – but, surprise, surprise, the main focus is not Brexit. Across the continent, far-right populist and nationalist parties are mobilising ahead of next month’s EU parliamentary elections. Polls show their support growing. For Europe’s newly energised hard right, Brexit is both a spur and a sideshow.
Whipping up anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-semitic sentiment, and exploiting public anger over austerity and the perceived arrogance of the Brussels political class, the populists aim to reassert the pre-eminence of national identity, narrowly defined, and halt the European project in its integrationist tracks.
Continue reading...Accusations of complicity in deaths of 800,000 in 1994 have clouded diplomatic relations
Emmanuel Macron has appointed a commission of historians and researchers to investigate France’s role in the Rwandan genocide 25 years ago, as accusations of complicity in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 people continue to cloud diplomatic relations between Kigali and Paris.
The French president said the panel of experts would look at state archives, including diplomatic and military documents, and produce a public report. The move was announced after Macron met representatives of a Rwandan genocide survivors’ association at the Élysée – the first time a French leader has held such a meeting.
Continue reading...European leaders and China’s Xi Jinping put on a show of unity in the face of US tariffs
Donald Trump was not on the guest list for Emmanuel Macron’s mini-summit in Paris, but the presence of the US president was still very much felt as Europe’s leaders sat down to talk trade, business deals and geopolitics with China’s Xi Jinping.
At one level, the message from the meeting of China’s leader with Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was obvious: this was a show of unity in the face of Trump’s tariffs aimed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Continue reading...French president invited Angela Merkel to talks with Chinese leader in Paris
Emmanuel Macron has launched a charm offensive towards his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, talking of multilateralism and cooperation while tiptoeing around subjects such as human rights.
In a meeting during a bilateral three-day state visit to France, the French president took the unprecedented step of inviting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to Paris for the talks.
Continue reading...The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has accused Brexiters of telling 'lies' to British voters, and he claimed they would be hardest hit if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. 'They told the people, "It'll be easy, it'll be quick!,"' he said. 'It's awful, there were a lot of lies.'
The French president has said that if British MPs reject Theresa May's withdrawal deal next week, it will 'guide everybody to a no-deal [Brexit]'. Emmanuel Macron also said the EU and the UK could agree a technical extension if the House of Commons were to vote in favour
Continue reading...French president sets wide-ranging plans to overhaul EU in response to UK’s vote to leave
Dear Europe, Brexit is a lesson for all of us; it’s time for renewal
Emmanuel Macron has called for a new European agency to fight against international cyber-attacks and the manipulation of election campaigns, as well as a ban on foreign powers funding European parties, as he set out plans to overhaul the EU in response to Britain’s vote to leave.
The French president, a pro-European centrist, made the rare move of appealing directly to citizens across the bloc in a long letter published by the Guardian and 27 other newspapers.
Continue reading...French president seeks to overcome ‘misunderstanding’ during appearance on Italian TV
Emmanuel Macron has said that the recent diplomatic clashes between Italy and France were “not serious” and needed to be surmounted for the greater good of Europe.
In an interview on Fabio Fazio’s talkshow on the Italian television channel Rai 1, the French president also warned against nationalism, arguing that “we need a strong Europe”.
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