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POLITICS

Leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urge French to vote for Macron

The leaders of Germany, Portugal and Spain on Thursday urged France to back centrist President Emmanuel Macron against far-right leader Marine Le Pen in elections this weekend, in a highly unusual intervention in the domestic politics of a fellow EU state.

Published: 21 April 2022 14:17 CEST
Leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urge French to vote for Macron
Left to right, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa have written an open letter urging support for Emmanuel Macron in the French elections. Photo by Geert Vanden Wijngaert / POOL / AFP

The run-off vote on Sunday is “for us not an election like others,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Spanish Premier Pedro Sanchez wrote in the Le Monde daily

France faces a “choice between a democratic candidate… and a candidate of the extreme right who openly joins ranks with those who attack our liberty and democracy,” they said.

They expressed hope the French will choose a France that has been a “beacon of democracy”.

“It is this France that is also on the ballot paper on April 24th,” they said.

The three leaders said that populists and extreme right figures across Europe had turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin as an “ideological and political model and echoed his nationalist claims.”

Le Pen met Putin in the Kremlin in 2017 and accepted Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, while her party also took a loan from a Russian-Czech bank.

She has since changed her tone and condemned the invasion, a stance she repeated on Wednesday night’s TV debate with Macron.

But the three leaders said: “We should not forget it, even if these politicians now try to take their distance from the Russian aggressor.”

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IMMIGRATION

Spanish Minister urges EU to ‘deepen’ ties to tackle migration roots

Ministers from five Mediterranean nations on Saturday urged the EU to "deepen" bilateral agreements with migrant countries of origin and increase funding to tackle the root causes of migration.

Published: 21 April 2024 16:36 CEST
Spanish Minister urges EU to 'deepen' ties to tackle migration roots

Meeting on Gran Canaria Island, interior and migration ministers from the so-called MED5 nations — Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain — discussed the new migration and asylum pact adopted by the EU parliament on April 11.

Years in the making, the deal involves a sweeping reform of the bloc’s asylum policies that will both harden border procedures while forcing all 27 nations to share responsibility for migrant arrivals.

The reform was spurred by the massive influx of migrants in 2015, with its provisions taking effect in 2026.

Hailing the pact as “historic”, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said there was “still a long way to go” and that the solution lay in “prevention” and addressing the root causes of migration “at its source”.

“The key to migration management lies in bilateral cooperation,” he told a news conference, urging the European Commission “to deepen and broaden partnerships and agreements with third countries” to stem flows of irregular migrants.

“But we believe there is room for improvement and the commitment should also focus on increasing European funds and flexible financing tools destined for such cooperation,” he said.

Under current EU rules, the arrival country bears responsibility for hosting and vetting asylum-seekers and returning those deemed inadmissible, which has put southern frontline states under huge pressure, fuelling far-right opposition.

The new EU pact, which includes building border centres to hold asylum-seekers and sending some to outside “safe” countries, has been denounced by migrant charities and NGOs, with Amnesty International warning it would “lead to greater human suffering”.

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