While speaking on European sovereignty to students at the Nexus Institute in The Hague, French President Emmanuel Macron was interrupted by protesters.
Emmanuel Macron had just begun his speech on European sovereignty in the Amare theater hall when young protesters challenged him from the stands. ” Where is French democracy? they shouted, unfurling a banner on which was written in English: “President of violence and hypocrisy”. “ You got millions of protesters in the streets “, they still launched, about the vast demonstrations organized since the beginning of the year against the pension reform.
” This is a democracy and a democracy is exactly a place where you can demonstrate “replied the Head of State when he was able to speak again after a minute’s interruption. But ” the day you say to yourself “When I disagree with the law that has been passed or the people who have been elected, I can do whatever I want, because I decide for myself the legitimacy of what I do”, you put democracy at risk “, he continued.
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To hear Emmanuel Macron, reforms such as pensions are necessary to ensure the competitiveness of Europe, one of the five pillars to be consolidated according to him to ensure European sovereignty, along with industrial policy, the protection of strategic interests, the reciprocity and cooperation. ” We need this industrial policy because our competitors are interfering in the market European, insisted the French president, calling for this to increase subsidies and ” good incentives “. At the end of his forty-minute speech delivered in English, the president answered a few questions from the students, this time without incident.
We need fair trade and reciprocity is part of it. And the free trade agreement must now obey a logic that goes beyond pure economic logic. First and foremost is sustainability.
Emmanuel Macron on the reciprocity of commercial exchanges
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were welcomed on Tuesday with military honors and national anthems at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam by King Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima, for this first state visit by a French president to this country. since 2000. Hundreds of people had gathered behind barriers to see the presidential couple pass.
The King and Queen of the Netherlands were to give a State dinner in their honor in the evening, with the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and the director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme among the distinguished guests, the two countries sharing the same passion for cycling and the Great Loop. This state visit marks a rapprochement between the two countries since the decision in 2016 of the United Kingdom to leave the EU which reshuffled the cards within the Union. The Netherlands then lost a traditional ally on the European scene which led them to diversify their cooperation.
(And with AFP)