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Suspension de l'aide américaine à l'Ukraine: Marine Le Pen dénonce une décision "brutale" et "cruelle" / Suspension of US aid to Ukraine: Marine Le Pen denounces a "brutal" and "cruel" decision
Suspension
de l'aide américaine à l'Ukraine: Marine Le Pen dénonce une décision
"brutale" et "cruelle"
Marie-Pierre
Bourgeois
Le 04/03 à
15h16
La
présidente des députés RN regrette que la décision de Donald Trump de faire une
"pause" dans le versement des aides à Kiev "ne lui laisse pas un
délai raisonnable pour se retourner". "Personne ne peut forcer les
États-Unis à maintenir leur soutien si ce pays ne le souhaite plus", juge
cependant Marine Le Pen.
Un geste que
regrette Marine Le Pen et qui marque un changement de ton. Quelques heures
après la "pause" annoncée par Donald Trump dans l'aide militaire des
États-Unis à l'Ukraine ce 3 mars, la présidente des députés du Rassemblement
national porte un jugement sévère sur ce choix.
"Je
considère que la brutalité de cette décision est condamnable", juge
l'ex-candidate à la présidentielle, dénonçant une "décision cruelle pour
les soldats ukrainiens", auprès du Figaro ce mardi.
"Personne
ne peut forcer les États-Unis"
Si cette
suspension concerne essentiellement l'aide déjà approuvée par l'ancienne
administration de Joe Biden, et a déjà été largement versée à Kiev, il reste
encore des armes et des équipements militaires à livrer.
En coupant
le robinet financier à l'Ukraine, Donald Trump espère forcer Volodymyr Zelensky
à signer un accord avec la Russie après le fiasco de leur rencontre du vendredi
28 février.
La députée
du Pas-de-Calais hausse la voix après son discours à l'Assemblée nationale ce
lundi lors d'un débat sur la guerre en Ukraine. À rebours des autres
interventions dont celle du Premier ministre François Bayrou, très applaudi,
Marine Le Pen a regretté "l'intransigeance occidentale vis-à-vis de la
Russie".
Pas question
cependant pour Marine Le Pen de taper trop fort sur Donald Trump, salué à de
nombreuses reprises par Jordan Bardella. Le président du RN devait même prendre
la parole devant des proches du dirigeant américain la semaine dernière avant
de finalement rétropédaler face au "geste nazi" de l'un des
intervenants, Steve Bannon.
"Personne
ne peut forcer les États-Unis à maintenir leur soutien si ce pays ne le
souhaite plus", précise ainsi la députée du Pas-de-Calais tout en estimant
"très critiquable de ne pas laisser un délai raisonnable à l’Ukraine pour
se retourner".
"L'idée
chimérique" d'une défense européenne
Reprenant
les mots qu'elle avaient déjà choisi à la tribune ce lundi soir, Marine Le Pen
s'est encore dit opposée à "l'idée chimérique" d'une "défense
européenne" et à "l'envoi de troupes françaises combattantes sur le
sol ukrainien".
Emmanuel
Macron est partant pour "ouvrir" la discussion" sur la
dissuasion nucléaire avec ses partenaires européens alors que seuls la France
et le Royaume-Uni possèdent l'arme nucléaire sur le continent européen.
Quant à
l'envoi de troupes européennes en Ukraine, l'hypothèse a été évoquée par le
chef de l'État lors du sommet de Londres ce dimanche, dans le cas de la
signature d'une trêve entre l'Ukraine et la Russie.
Suspension
of US aid to Ukraine: Marine Le Pen denounces a "brutal" and
"cruel" decision
Marie-Pierre
Bourgeois
04/03 at
15h16
The
president of the RN deputies regrets that Donald Trump's decision to take a
"pause" in the payment of aid to Kiev "does not give him a
reasonable period of time to turn around". "No one can force the
United States to maintain its support if it no longer wants to," said
Marine Le Pen.
A gesture
that Marine Le Pen regrets and which marks a change of tone. A few hours after
the "pause" announced by Donald Trump in US military aid to Ukraine
on 3 March, the president of the National Rally deputies makes a harsh
judgement on this choice.
"I
consider that the brutality of this decision is condemnable," the former
presidential candidate said, denouncing a "cruel decision for Ukrainian
soldiers", to Le Figaro on Tuesday.
"No one
can force the United States"
While this
suspension mainly concerns aid already approved by the former Joe Biden
administration, and has already been largely paid to Kiev, there are still
weapons and military equipment to be delivered.
By cutting
off the financial tap to Ukraine, Donald Trump hopes to force Volodymyr
Zelensky to sign an agreement with Russia after the fiasco of their meeting on
Friday 28 February.
The MP for
Pas-de-Calais raises her voice after her speech to the National Assembly on
Monday during a debate on the war in Ukraine. In contrast to other
interventions, including that of Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was highly
applauded, Marine Le Pen regretted "Western intransigence towards
Russia".
However,
there is no question of Marine Le Pen hitting Donald Trump too hard, who has
been praised on many occasions by Jordan Bardella. The president of the RN was
even supposed to speak to people close to the American leader last week before
finally backpedaling in the face of the "Nazi gesture" of one of the
speakers, Steve Bannon.
"No one
can force the United States to maintain its support if this country no longer
wants to," said the Pas-de-Calais MP, while considering it "very
criticisable not to give Ukraine a reasonable period of time to turn
around".
The
"chimerical idea" of a European defence
Repeating
the words she had already chosen from the podium on Monday evening, Marine Le
Pen again said she was opposed to the "chimerical idea" of a
"European defence" and to "the sending of French fighting troops
on Ukrainian soil".
Emmanuel
Macron is ready to "open" the discussion" on nuclear deterrence
with his European partners while only France and the United Kingdom possess
nuclear weapons on the European continent.
As for
sending European troops to Ukraine, the hypothesis was raised by the head of
state at the London summit on Sunday, in the event of the signing of a truce
between Ukraine and Russia.
European troops in Ukraine? It’s the least effective option, Meloni says
March 6,
20259:20 pm
Giovanna
Faggionato
https://www.politico.eu/article/european-council-summit-eu-defense-spending-ukraine-war/
European troops in Ukraine? It’s the least effective option, Meloni says
Italy’s PM
Giorgia Meloni told reporters that she sees the idea of sending “not
identified, European” troops in Ukraine as “the least effective” option.
“I am very
perplexed,” she said. “Certain security guarantees are always within the
Atlantic Alliance,” she said, while exiting the summit.
The Italian
leader, who has been at pains to maintain close ties with the Trump
administration, said that a stable, lasting, and effective security guarantee
would be extending Article 5 of the NATO treaty to Kyiv, meaning an attack
against Ukraine would be considered an attack against all NATO members.
And also
… I told you so
Meloni said
she welcomes the debate about an overall review of the EU’s fiscal rules.
“If some of
the things we said when the new pact was agreed had been listened to, perhaps
we would not be at this point,” she said, adding that a review should go beyond
defense investments and cover broader competitiveness goals.
Major division in EU as leaders get deal on arming Ukraine — without Hungary
Major
division in EU as leaders get deal on arming Ukraine — without Hungary
Summit shows
backing for Kyiv, but Orbán veto exposes disunity.
March 6,
2025 8:30 pm CET
By Gabriel
Gavin
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-leader-ukraine-viktor-orban-russia-hungary-26-countries/
BRUSSELS ―
European Union leaders have endorsed military support for Ukraine but without
the support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
At an
emergency summit Thursday in Brussels, Orbán, who hasn't hidden his admiration
for Russian President Vladimir Putin, vetoed an EU-wide push to replace
American military aid. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the freezing of
military assistance to Kyiv on Monday.
The EU's
other 26 leaders moved forward without Hungary and published their own
conclusions.
"Achieving
‘peace through strength’ requires Ukraine to be in the strongest possible
position, with Ukraine’s own robust military and defense capabilities as an
essential component," the joint statement said. "The European Union
remains committed, in coordination with like-minded partners and allies, to
providing enhanced political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and
diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people."
The text
also vows to step up pressure on Russia by imposing further sanctions and
better enforcing existing ones "in order to weaken its ability to continue
waging its war of aggression. "
While that
enables a technical fix, it again exposes the difficulties the EU has in
formulating a consistent position toward Putin ― and Trump.
Coalition of
the willing
Earlier in
the day, Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, told reporters that
leaders are considering creating a "coalition of the willing, so that one
country cannot block everybody else."
Doing so
would challenge the fundamentals of the EU, but could ensure it is able to
present a coherent foreign policy.
Ultimately,
though, implementing sanctions and other key measures at the EU level would
still require unanimity — paving the way for further showdowns with Orbán.
Fears that
Slovakia could join Hungary in holding up an agreement have subsided after
populist Prime Minister Robert Fico secured wording in the joint text that
would commit the EU to supporting Bratislava in its efforts to pressure Ukraine
to restart Russian gas pipelines running across its territory. However, that
language was later watered down to avoid specifically mentioning a resumption
of the flow of Russian gas.
"Fico
is still pragmatic," said Milan Nič, a senior fellow at the German Council
on Foreign Relations. "The new feature is that Orbán is digging deep alone
— because he is now even more convinced that the EU is going to erode due to
Trump."
‘Watershed moment’: EU leaders agree plan for huge rise in defence spending
‘Watershed
moment’: EU leaders agree plan for huge rise in defence spending
Leaders
endorse von der Leyen proposal but show of unity over Ukraine is marred by
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán
Jennifer
Rankin in Brussels
Thu 6 Mar
2025 20.57 CET
European
leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase
to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald
Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing.
But the show
of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to
endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly
negotiating stance.
The 26 other
EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister,
“firmly supported” the statement. “There can be no negotiations on Ukraine
without Ukraine,” said the draft statement, a response to Trump’s attempt to
sideline Europe and Kyiv.
Earlier in
the day, arriving at the summit, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had originally been
scheduled to join by video link, said: “We are very thankful that we are not
alone.”
The European
Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who presented to leaders an €800bn
(£670bn) plan to increase European defence spending, said it was “a watershed
moment for Europe” and also for Ukraine.
Denmark’s
prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, set the tone of the meeting. “Spend, spend,
spend on defence and deterrence,” she said. “That is the most important
message, and at the same time, of course, continue to support Ukraine, because
we want peace in Europe.”
Zelenskyy
shook leaders’ hands and was embraced by several around the table at the start
of the meeting. It was a stark contrast to the hostility from Washington, where
US officials doubled down on the decision to cut intelligence sharing with
Ukraine.
The US envoy
to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said it had been done to show the US was serious
about ending the war. “The best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a
mule with a two by four across the nose. You get their attention,” he said.
Separately,
Ukrainian opposition leaders confirmed they had met members of Trump’s
entourage, but they denied seeking to remove Zelenskyy from power.
Addressing
EU leaders, Zelenskyy said: “The real question for any negotiations is whether
Russia is capable of giving up the war,” as he noted Russia was increasing
military spending, growing its army and “making no pauses in trying to overcome
sanctions”.
Zelenskyy
later said on social media he planned to visit Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet
the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. “After that, my team will stay in Saudi
Arabia to work with our American partners,” he wrote. “Ukraine is most
interested in peace. As we told POTUS, Ukraine is working and will continue to
work constructively for a swift and -reliable peace.”
The EU
special summit was called last week after Trump embarked on his direct
diplomacy with Vladimir Putin, but before the US president’s bullying encounter
with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and the suspension of US military aid.
EU leaders
largely endorse the plan to “rearm Europe” outlined by von der Leyen earlier
this week, although the €800bn is highly theoretical, depending on decisions by
member states.
“Europe must
become more sovereign, more responsible for its own defence and better equipped
to act and deal autonomously with immediate and future challenges and threats,”
the final conclusions state. The EU “will accelerate the mobilisation of the
necessary instruments and financing” to boost security and “reinforce its
overall defence readiness [and] reduce its strategic dependencies”.
Arriving at
the summit, von der Leyen told reporters: “Europe faces a clear and present
danger, and therefore Europe has to be able to protect itself, to defend
itself, as we have to put Ukraine in a position to protect itself and to push
for a lasting and just peace.”
The
commission has said its plan is worth €800bn, including a €150bn loan scheme
secured against unused funds in the EU budget, as well as greater flexibilities
in the EU’s fiscal rules that could unlock €650bn in new spending.
Member
states would still have to agree to the €150bn loans scheme, while it is
unclear if governments would make full use of the €650bn financial leeway the
commission suggests.
Pressure is
growing on all countries to increase national defence budgets, especially the
seven EU Nato members, including Spain and Italy, that are below the 2% target
set more than a decade ago. Belgium’s new prime minister, Bart De Wever, said
his country was “an extremely poor pupil” and “getting a slap on the wrist that
we deserve”.
In a seismic
shift, Germany’s probable next coalition partners, the CDU-CSU and SPD, have
agreed to change the country’s “debt brake” to allow increased spending on
defence, heralding billions for armaments production. Germany’s
chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, the fiscal hawk turned defence spending
advocate, met von der Leyen and the European Council president, António Costa,
before the summit, although he is not yet at the table.
The current
German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who represents Germany as coalition talks
continue, said there appeared to be growing consensus on changing the German
constitution to allow greater defence spending. The unexpected move from Berlin
has left Germany’s frugal-minded allies scrambling to understand the
ramifications.
Scholz gave
a cool response to Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to allow European allies to
shelter under the French nuclear umbrella, saying Europe should not give up on
US involvement. Merz, however, has said he wants to discuss with Paris and
London whether British and French nuclear protection could be extended to
Germany.
Poland’s
prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the French proposal on nuclear deterrence
should be seriously considered as part of a broader plan to coordinate European
defence capabilities.
Europe had
lost a lot of time “but today everything has truly changed”, Tusk said,
referring to the commission’s proposals and recent meetings of European leaders
in Paris and London. The war in Ukraine, the new approach of the US
administration and the arms race initiated by Russia posed new challenges for
Europe, he said, adding: “I am convinced that Russia will lose this arms race –
just as the Soviet Union lost a similar arms race 40 years ago.”
EU officials
said it was unlikely that leaders would agree a precise plan for European
military aid for Ukraine for 2025, after receiving a proposal from the EU
foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. Since Kallas set out her plan to get weapons
and ammunition to Ukraine, amounts ranging from €20bn to €40bn have been
floated.
Kallas said
she hoped to see a political agreement on her proposal at Thursday’s summit,
with numbers being filled in at a European Council on 20-21 March. Asked about
Hungary’s opposition, she said her initiative could also be based on a
“coalition of the willing” to avoid one country blocking everyone else.
Before
Thursday’s summit, Orbán prompted an angry response when he called on the EU to
follow Trump and enter into direct peace talks with Putin, in a letter in which
he announced his intention to veto the summit conclusions on Ukraine.
Slovakia, in
contrast, dropped its opposition to the Ukraine text after securing a reference
to its gas transit dispute with Kyiv. Ukraine shut down a pipeline that had
been supplying Russian natural gas to Slovakia for decades on 1 January when a
transit agreement expired, triggering threats by Fico to cut financial support
for Ukrainian refugees.
The
Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, said the EU needed to look at other ways
of taking decisions, getting around opposition from one or two countries,
“because otherwise history will penalise us”.
He said:
“It’s lasting too long, our inability to take decisions. And now it is the time
[to act].”
Absent from
the EU draft text are proposals for new common borrowing (eurobonds), but the
idea continues to circulate, despite opposition from Germany that Scholz
reiterated on Thursday.
“The
European Union will truly turn a page on a Europe of defence,” a senior EU
official said before the meeting, referring to Thursday’s summit. “Is this the
end of the story? No I don’t think so.”
In
Washington, the UK defence secretary, John Healey, said he was “fixed” on the
opportunity Trump had created to secure peace in Ukraine.
Healey, who
was in Washington to meet his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, said: “The
president has asked Europe to step up, and we are. The UK is ready to take on a
leadership in that task. You saw that from Keir Starmer at the weekend, in the
way that he is pulling the parties together, ensuring that we take Ukraine with
us and that we work closely alongside the United States.”
Trump wants to destroy the EU — and rebuild it in his image
Trump wants
to destroy the EU — and rebuild it in his image
By NICHOLAS
VINOCUR
and CAMILLE
GIJS
in Brussels
March 6,
2025 4:00 am CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-destroy-european-union-brussels/
Donald Trump
tried and failed to find a chink in the EU’s armor through a trade war in his
first term.
But now he’s
found a more vulnerable spot: The massive security crisis he’s engineered by
withdrawing U.S. support for Ukraine is exposing potentially lethal cracks in
the 27-nation bloc.
Little could
please him more.
The U.S.
president has long seethed with undisguised disdain for the EU, which he has
described — inaccurately — as having been created “to screw the United States.”
For Trump, the EU sits alongside his other supranational bêtes noires like the
World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, which need to be
slapped down for fleecing America.
In only the
first few frantic weeks of his second term, his administration has shown it
will give short shrift to Brussels. The EU’s trade chief visited Washington,
only for Trump to dial up his tariff plans; its foreign policy chief was
brutally snubbed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and EU parliamentarians had
to fly home with the chastening message that America would defy their tech
rules as European “censorship.”
The message
is clear: Trump will sideline the EU and play divide-and-rule with national
leaders. That wasn’t possible in the trade war of his first term, when Europe
united to hit him back. And now, splits over the war in Ukraine are asking
existential questions of the bloc’s unity.
The Trump
administration’s anti-EU push now aligns with the Kremlin’s long-standing
hostility toward the bloc and is triggering a crisis in Brussels institutions.
The EU as a bloc is scrambling to prove its relevance as national leaders, such
as French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, step
to the fore to take charge of Europe’s response to Trump.
The European
Council, where the 27 national leaders are supposed to take big foreign policy
decisions by consensus, is being agonizingly exposed as too divided and
insufficiently nimble to respond to the scale of the storm that Trump is
whipping up over Ukraine.
Indeed, EU
diplomats are already playing down expectations of any major breakthroughs at
an emergency Council summit in Brussels this week because of Hungary’s
opposition to further aid for Ukraine. Instead, Starmer and Macron are having
to work round the EU in ad hoc diplomatic formats, inviting countries such as
Turkey and Canada, and conspicuously not inviting the EU’s pro-Russian leaders.
The crisis
is “moving Europe’s center of gravity back to the national capitals,” said
Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, a think
tank. “The role of the institutions in this context is important but not
mission-critical.”
“That’s the
new equilibrium and the new reality” that the EU’s top officials, Ursula von
der Leyen and António Costa, “have to accommodate themselves to,” he added. Von
der Leyen heads the EU’s executive Commission while Costa is president of the
European Council.
One EU
diplomat, who like others in this piece was granted anonymity to speak freely,
voiced confidence the bloc would be able to weather the Trump hurricane, if
only just. “The EU is hanging on by the skin of its teeth but, each time, it
does make us stronger,” they said.
Trump is
rocking the bloc not only by cozying up to the Kremlin and upending the Western
alliance, but also by directly intervening in national politics and supporting
the rise of far-right parties.
The more
pessimistic observers in Europe argue the Trump administration is hell-bent on
promoting populist nationalist forces in Europe to help destroy the EU and pull
it back to a far looser confederation of countries, all of which would be more
beholden to the United States — or, perhaps, to Russia.
“What [U.S.
Vice President JD] Vance did in Munich … shows a desire to destroy the
progressive European Union to create a new one that would be allied with the
United States, and would be a Europe of nations with a conservative bent,” said
Tanguy Struye de Swielande, professor of international relations at UCLouvain
and an expert on EU-U.S. relations.
Snubs,
slights and cold shoulders
Trump’s bile
over what he calls the “very nasty” EU is nothing new. It has long riled him as
a trade heavyweight that runs bumper surpluses in goods with the United States,
while relying on America for military protection. Most famously he has fumed
over the number of luxury German cars on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Belgium, seat
of the EU institutions, is one of his “shithole” countries.
But he still
had to deal with top EU officials. And in the course of transatlantic
arguments, he even took a liking to some of them. Margaritis Schinas, who was
chief spokesperson for the European Commission during Trump’s first term,
recalls transatlantic relations as being tense, but functional and at times
droll in the trade war of the first term.
“There was
always a bit of a show,” said Schinas, who was chief spokesperson under
then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, before becoming a commissioner
himself under von der Leyen. “But the fact is that he liked Juncker. He liked
[then-European Council President Donald] Tusk. They sniffed each other, and
they saw it was OK.”
When Juncker
travelled to D.C. in July 2018, at the height of EU-U.S. trade tensions, the
talks between Trump and the EU’s multilingual Luxembourgish president were
“very colorful,” with “lots of jokes, innuendo, petites phrases … It was this
very transactional give-and-take that worked.”
This time,
however, Trump seems in no mood to engage with EU officials. Of all EU leaders,
only Italy’s nationalist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Viktor
Orbán secured an official invitation to his presidential inauguration, just
like other far-right European politicians who crowded the Capitol for the
event.
While von
der Leyen met with Vance — who has repeatedly incurred European outrage — in
Munich, neither she nor Costa have scored an in-person meeting with Trump since
his inauguration.
Those
granted time with Trump officials don’t have much to show for it.
When EU
trade chief Maroš Šefčovič went to Washington in January, he not only came back
empty-handed but learned a week after his return that things risked getting
even worse than the original threat of reciprocal tariffs.
Indeed, it
transpired that Trump intended to impose a 25-percent tariff on all imports
from the EU, taking no heed of the offers Šefčovič had prepared to avoid a
trade war, including buying more American liquefied natural gas and lowering
the EU’s own tariffs on cars to match those of the U.S.
“Šefčovič
came very prepared with very clear proposals while the U.S. was still very much
on the surface of things,” said a second EU diplomat briefed on the
conversations in Washington. “I don’t think they were able to respond to what
he put on the table.”
“Šefčovič
went there with a pedagogical intention. They need it explained to them,
because they’re people who live under the bark of their superiors,” they added.
A similar
dynamic played out when a group of members of the European Parliament, led by
German Green Anna Cavazzini, travelled to Washington last month in an attempt
to foster dialogue with Republican lawmakers on the EU’s tech laws, which have
come in for withering criticism from Vance.
The meetings
were cordial, with the Europeans doing their best to explain the laws and why,
according to them, they were beneficial to U.S. corporations. The group even
scored a meeting with Republican member of Congress Jim Jordan.
But no
sooner had the European lawmakers left than POLITICO published a letter from
Jordan’s office, addressed to von der Leyen, in which he demanded that tech
firms send him their correspondence with EU officials on how they comply with
“censorship regimes.”
The letter
was “aggressive” and “wrong,” said Sandro Gozi, a centrist lawmaker.
It also fit
an emerging pattern: Where the Trump administration sees a potential weakness,
for instance in the EU’s willingness to fully enforce its own laws against U.S.
interests, it’s going all out to “call Europe’s bluff” by defying those laws.
“What we can
see with Vance, and part of the Big Tech … is that there is an ideological
agenda and this is also where we can see a desire to weaken the European Union
as a potential power,” added Struye de Swielande from UCLouvain.
The
exception to this rule: Hungary’s European commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi —
whose country is far more closely allied to the Trump-Putin camp — who met
several senior members of the president’s Cabinet during a trip to D.C. in late
February.
Bonfire of
the vanities
As for top
EU diplomat Kaja Kallas, she didn’t even get a chance to meet with her U.S.
counterpart. The former Estonian prime minister and Russia hawk, who rose to
her post last year, was meant to meet Rubio late last month.
Kallas duly
arrived in Washington, only to learn that Rubio would be unable to see her due
to “scheduling issues.” Speaking to CBS that weekend, Kallas played down the
missed encounter, but the damage had been done.
“This is the
brutal reality of this transatlantic rupture,” said Rahman. “Of course there’s
a role for the institutions, but it’s not going to be the same as it has been.”
Asked about
the risk of being sidelined by Trump, a spokesperson for the European
Commission stressed that meetings were taking place between senior EU officials
and their U.S. counterparts: Von der Leyen met Vance in Munich, her chief aide
Bjoern Seibert traveled to Washington, and trade chief Šefčovič met his U.S.
counterparts.
“It is
current and normal practice that there are direct contacts between the U.S. and
national governments in addition to contacts with the EU,” the spokesperson
said.
In this new
era of power politics, EU officials with control over money and hard policy
will fare much better than others whose role is less clearly defined.
Von der
Leyen, whose Commission commands the EU’s massive budget and is in control of
trade as well as antitrust policy, is likely to get Trump’s attention, whether
he likes it or not. When he kicks off his trade war, it is the powerbrokers in
Brussels who will be slapping tariffs on U.S. bourbon, jeans and motorbikes.
And it’s the Commission that can hit U.S. tech giants with multibillion-dollar
competition fines.
EU officials
with less tangible power, like Council President Costa or top diplomat Kallas,
will have to fight for relevance and play up their own influence.
In areas
where the EU is unwilling to fully use its powers, such as the application of
certain tech rules, a quiet retreat is likely.
One ray of
sunshine for the EU is that both Trump and Russia care enough about the bloc to
invest energy in denigrating it. That, in itself, suggests the EU is worth
fighting for.
“We keep on
hearing that the EU is not influential, that we count for less than nothing,”
said an EU official. “But if Trump and Putin find common ground in identifying
us as their enemy, it’s probably because at the end we actually count for
something.”
Jacopo
Barigazzi, Eliza Gkritsi and Max Griera contributed to this report.
March 1, 2025: Le Pen says Trump-Zelenskyy clash exposes Europe’s weakness
Le Pen
says Trump-Zelenskyy clash exposes Europe’s weakness
French
far-right leader Marine Le Pen says the confrontation between the American and
Ukrainian leaders underscores Europe’s dependence on the U.S.
March 1,
2025 12:35 pm CET
By Bartosz
Brzeziński and Marion Solletty
French
far-right leader Marine Le Pen slammed the tense exchange between U.S.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “slap
in the face” for Europe, warning that the continent’s security remains at the
mercy of Washington.
Speaking at
the Salon de l’Agriculture farming exhibition in Paris Saturday morning, the
National Rally politician argued that the confrontation underscored Europe’s
lack of strategic autonomy, channeling the Gaullist tradition of skepticism
toward U.S. influence. While she described the face-off as “understandably
tense” given the “very difficult” situation, she played down its significance
beyond optics.
At Friday’s
meeting at the White House, Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance berated
Zelenskyy, accusing the Ukrainian president of showing insufficient gratitude
for U.S. support. The clash ended with Trump canceling a planned press
conference and halting the planned signing of a framework minerals deal between
the two countries.
European
leaders swiftly closed ranks behind Zelenskyy, with figures like French
President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der
Leyen reaffirming support for Kyiv and warning against Trump’s alignment with
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Le Pen also
took a firm stance against expanding the EU’s defense role in response, warning
that Brussels must not use the moment to “take advantage” and claim greater
powers. She reiterated her opposition to sharing France’s nuclear deterrent.
The issues could prove pivotal ahead of the 2027 French presidential elections.
Bartosz
Brzeziński reported from Brussels. Marion Solletty reported from Paris.
March 1, 2025: Sharing France’s nuclear umbrella? No way, says Le Pen
.jpg)
Sharing
France’s nuclear umbrella? No way, says Le Pen
Macron’s
main opponent is ready to fight plans to pool European resources to make up for
the looming loss of the U.S. military protection.
March 1,
2025 4:52 pm CET
By Marion
Solletty
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-nuclear-defense-sharing-marine-le-pen-europe/
PARIS ― A
pooling of France’s nuclear warheads to help protect Europe won’t happen ― not
if Marine Le Pen can help it.
The
far-right leader on Saturday vigorously opposed plans to build a stronger, more
integrated European defense, including by sharing France’s nuclear umbrella, as
proposals to pool and ramp up the continent’s firepower have suddenly gained
much more traction with U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing alignment with
Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“French
defense must remain French defense,” Le Pen said, speaking at the Salon de
l’Agriculture farming exhibition in Paris.
"The
French nuclear deterrent must remain a French nuclear deterrent," she
said. "It must not be shared, let alone delegated."
The French
National Assembly, where Le Pen’s National Rally and its allies hold roughly a
third of the seats since July’s snap election, on Monday will debate and vote
on European security and the situation in Ukraine. While the vote is
non-binding and military affairs are under the president’s remit, the
parliament holds sway on defense-related bills, including the budget, which
would inevitably be impacted should France seek to step up its military
spending in the coming years.
Le Pen's
comments come as European leaders are scrambling to build a credible response
to Trump’s wrecking of decades of transatlantic consensus over the security of
the continent, which has relied on American protection since the end of World
War II.
The U.S.
president’s undermining of NATO, his attacks on embattled Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and threats to pull back American troops from Europe have
left European leaders stunned, scrambling to explore alternatives to America’s
military might and its wide-ranging atomic shield.
Fighting
for de Gaulle’s mantle
French
Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Saturday commented on the ongoing debate,
insisting that President Emmanuel Macron’s overtures on using the French
nuclear force to protect European interests didn’t mean surrendering
sovereignty on its arsenal.
Macron has
long advocated for a defense independent from Washington, a running theme for
French politicians dating back to legendary General Charles de Gaulle, the
father of the fifth republic and the country’s most revered politician.
Le Pen on
Saturday also vied for the general’s heritage, pointing her finger at Europe’s
apparent powerlessness amid the waves of chaos coming from Washington and
Moscow.
“What does
yesterday's conversation actually shows?” she asked, referring to Trump’s
browbeating of Zelenskyy the day before in the Oval Office, which she sought to
downplay. “It is that the Americans decide whether to end or continue the war.
And that, for European nations, is a considerable slap in the face,” she said.
“It is an
absolutely major diplomatic failure, a loss of influence that is now obvious to
everyone,” Le Pen said.
But unlike
Macron, Le Pen is adamant that more Europe is not the answer.
Instead, she
vowed to fight any attempt at making an integrated European defense a reality,
something that could prove a serious roadblock to the EU’s ambitions should Le
Pen prevail in the country’s presidential election.
“As usual,
the European Union is using a crisis to get itself additional powers,” Le Pen
said. “I can see that they would like this conflict to continue, so that they
can take over responsibility for defense. I don't accept this.”
ECB cuts rates again and warns trade war fears are hurting Europe’s economy
ECB cuts
rates again and warns trade war fears are hurting Europe’s economy
Quarter-point
cut to deposit rate, to 2.5%, comes as Trump prepares to impose tariffs on EU
exports to US
Phillip
Inman
Thu 6 Mar
2025 15.41 CET
The European
Central Bank has cut interest rates across the 20-member eurozone for the
second time this year, and warned that trade war fears were hurting Europe’s
economy.
The
Frankfurt-based rate setter cut its benchmark deposit rate by a quarter of a
percentage point to 2.5%, in line with City economist expectations, as Trump
prepared to impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from the EU, in line with
similar actions taken against Canada and Mexico.
The ECB
president, Christine Lagarde, blamed a “high level of trade and policy
uncertainty” for a downgrade in growth this year.
There was
better news on the battle against inflation, which the ECB said was moderating.
“The
disinflation process is well on track,” the ECB said. “Inflation has continued
to develop broadly as staff expected, and the latest projections closely align
with the previous inflation outlook.”
The central
bank cut its growth forecasts for this year and next year, warning that “the
economy faces continued challenges”.
“The
downward revisions for 2025 and 2026 reflect lower exports and ongoing weakness
in investment, in part originating from high trade policy uncertainty as well
as broader policy uncertainty,” the ECB said.
It now
expects growth of just 0.9% in 2025, 1.2% in 2026 and 1.3% in 2027. It had
previously forecast growth of 1.1% for this year, and 1.4% in 2026.
But it
lifted its forecast for inflation this year, from 2.1% to 2.3%, because of
higher energy prices.
After six
cuts in the cost of borrowing in the last year, ECB officials are understood to
be hesitant about going further while the international situation remains
volatile and the recent fall in inflation could reverse.
Price
pressures eased in February, as inflation fell to 2.4% from 2.5% in January,
according to a flash estimate by Eurostat, and services inflation dropped to
3.7% – below 3.9% for the first time since April 2024.
However,
increases in energy prices in response to the uncertainty surrounding “peace
talks” to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine could upend projections that
inflation will fall back to the 2% target by the first quarter of 2026.
Lagarde
warned that a rise in energy prices could feed through to higher food prices,
delaying an expected return of inflation to 2% next year.
The deposit
rate sets the interest that banks receive when they make overnight deposits
with the Eurosystem.
The ECB also
cut its main refinancing rate, paid by banks when they borrow funds from the
central bank on a weekly basis, by a quarter of one percentage point, to 2.65%.
The marginal
lending facility rate, charged when banks borrow overnight from the ECB, has
been cut from 3.15% to 2.90%.
The ECB said
its interest rate had become “meaningfully less restrictive”, signalling that
further rate cuts would be modest, and possibly delayed until at least the
summer, especially when the impact of previous rate cuts had yet to feed
through to the wider economy.
The ECB is
also under pressure to prevent a steep rise in eurozone government borrowing
costs after the German chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, said his country
would “do whatever it takes” to rearm.
Merz is keen
to lift a debt brake that has prevented successive German governments since the
2008 financial crash from lifting borrowing significantly.
This sparked
a surge in German borrowing costs this week, and a knock-on impact on Italian
and French bonds, which have risen sharply in recent days, putting pressure on
Paris and Rome to make spending cuts to balance the books.
Governo já aprovou moção de confiança. Montenegro garante que será candidato em caso de eleições antecipadas / The government has already approved a motion of confidence. Montenegro guarantees that he will be a candidate in case of early elections
PORTUGAL
Política
Governo
já aprovou moção de confiança. Montenegro garante que será candidato em caso de
eleições antecipadas
Moção
detalha trabalho feito pelo Governo desde que tomou posse e deixa críticas ao
PS: "Uma férrea vontade de aprofundar um clima artificial de desgaste e de
suspeição ininterrupta sobre o Governo."
Nuno
Fernandes
Publicado a:
06 Mar 2025,
12:29
Atualizado
a:
06 Mar 2025,
13:02
O Governo já
aprovou a moção de confiança que vai entregar no Parlamento, uma aprovação que
foi feita esta manhã em Conselho de Ministros por votação eletrónica. "O
Conselho de Ministros aprovou esta quinta-feira, 6 de março, por deliberação
escrita e através da rede informática do Governo, uma Moção de Confiança a
submeter à Assembleia da República", pode ler-se no comunicado.
O debate da
moção de confiança terá de acontecer ao terceiro dia parlamentar subsequente à
entrega do documento e a sua rejeição implica a queda do Governo.
O PM,
entretanto, referiu em Bruxelas que caso haja eleições pretende que aconteçam o
mais breve possível e deixou a garantia de que será ele a ir a votos num
cenário de eleições antecipadas: "A situação política é conhecida, a
situação do Governo, do primeiro-ministro e do PSD também é conhecida, não vai
sofrer alterações."
A moção de
confiança que o Governo vai apresentar ao Parlamento defende que "o país
precisa de clarificação política" perante dúvidas levantadas quanto à vida
patrimonial e profissional do primeiro-ministro, sendo "hora de cada um
assumir as suas responsabilidades".
O Governo
justifica a apresentação desta moção de confiança "para garantir a
estabilidade política efetiva, imprescindível às condições necessárias para que
possa prosseguir a execução do seu programa de transformação do país".
Leia aqui a
moção de confiança do Governo na íntegra:
"Estabilidade
efetiva, com sentido de responsabilidade
O Governo
conquistou a estabilidade política, promoveu a estabilidade social e consolidou
a estabilidade económica e financeira que permitiram a Portugal iniciar um rumo
virtuoso focado na resolução dos problemas das pessoas e na transformação do
País.
Desde a sua
tomada de posse, o Governo iniciou uma verdadeira transformação positiva no
País:
Com este
Governo, valorizaram-se as carreiras da administração pública, aumentaram as
pensões e os impostos desceram.
Com este
Governo, o desemprego atingiu números historicamente mínimos, enquanto o
emprego se encontra em máximos também históricos.
Com este
Governo, a economia cresce bem acima da média europeia e o equilíbrio
orçamental mostra-nos um sólido superavit.
Com este
Governo, reduziu-se fortemente a dívida pública e a dívida externa líquida para
valores de há muitos anos. Em consequência, o rating da República recuperou
para um nível de solidez há muito perdido.
Com este
Governo, tomaram-se decisões estruturais nas infraestruturas e mobilidade, com
destaque para o novo aeroporto de Lisboa, a rede de alta velocidade, a nova
travessia sobre o Tejo ou o passe ferroviário verde.
Com este
Governo, está em curso o processo de construção de 59.000 novas casas públicas.
Com este
Governo, controlou-se e regularizou-se a Imigração, com rigor e com humanismo.
Com este
Governo, apostou-se no policiamento de proximidade e no combate à criminalidade
violenta, incluindo a violência doméstica.
Com este
Governo, está em concretização o Programa de Emergência e Transformação da
Saúde e o ensino público está a ser reformado e modernizado.
Com este
Governo, está a ser executado o Programa «Acelerar a Economia» e o
investimento, público e privado, está a chegar ao terreno.
Tendo sido
levantadas dúvidas sobre a vida profissional e patrimonial do
Primeiro-Ministro, este prestou os devidos esclarecimentos e reiterou as
medidas adequadas para prevenir qualquer potencial conflitos de interesse.
Não tendo
sido apontada qualquer ilegalidade, ainda assim, as oposições persistiram em
fomentar um clima de suspeição desprovido de bases factuais e sem a mínima
correlação com a realidade.
No nosso
sistema constitucional, o Governo depende do Parlamento.
Não devem,
portanto, subsistir dúvidas quanto às condições que o Governo dispõe para
continuar a executar o seu Programa.
Nesse
sentido, o Primeiro-Ministro teve oportunidade de instar os partidos políticos
a declarar, sem tibiezas, se conferiam o direito, ao Governo, de executar o seu
Programa viabilizado no Parlamento há menos de um ano.
As respostas
de parte relevante dos partidos, designadamente do Partido Socialista, enquanto
maior partido da oposição, não permitem a clarificação política que o País
precisa. Pelo contrário, essas respostas e as sucessivas declarações dos
principais dirigentes do Partido Socialista parecem refletir uma férrea vontade
de aprofundar um clima artificial de desgaste e de suspeição ininterrupta sobre
o Governo.
Por mais
infundadas que sejam as alegações e por mais clarificadoras que se mostrem as
respostas do Governo, parece ter-se entrado numa espiral sem fim, em que
qualquer explicação é imediatamente revirada visando suscitar uma nova dúvida
sem razão, nem sentido. Esta atitude destrutiva não traz nada de útil ao regime
democrático, nem aproveita a Portugal e aos portugueses.
O País
precisa de clarificação política e, perante estas circunstâncias, este é o
momento de a conseguir. Os grandes desafios internos de Portugal assim o
exigem, e o preocupante agravamento do contexto internacional assim o impõe.
Permitir o arrastamento do presente cenário seria contrário ao interesse
nacional. E o Governo não o pode aceitar.
Para
garantir a estabilidade política efetiva, imprescindível às condições
necessárias para que possa prosseguir a execução do seu Programa de
transformação do País, é com pleno sentido de responsabilidade e exclusivo foco
no interesse nacional que o Governo submete a presente moção de confiança.
É hora de
cada um assumir as suas responsabilidades.
Assim, nos
termos das normas constitucionais e regimentais aplicáveis, o Governo solicita
à Assembleia da República a aprovação de um voto de confiança à sua ação, em
nome da estabilidade e do desenvolvimento do País."
Montenegro
confirma que será candidato se houver eleições
O
primeiro-ministro aludiu esta quinta-feira à sua continuidade à frente do PSD e
do Governo se houver eleições antecipadas na sequência da moção de confiança ao
executivo, referindo que a situação "não vai sofrer alterações",
indicando assim que será candidato em caso de eleições antecipadas.
"A
situação política é conhecida, a situação do Governo, do primeiro-ministro e do
PSD também é conhecida, não vai sofrer alterações", disse Luís Montenegro,
à entrada para uma reunião extraordinária do Conselho Europeu, em Bruxelas.
O
primeiro-ministro defendeu ainda que "era desejável" que não
existisse "uma perturbação política" no país, mas insistiu que o
parlamento tem de esclarecer se tem dúvidas quanto à legitimidade do Governo. E
insistiu que que a existirem eleições antecipadas, devem ocorrer num
"período curto" para se evitar um "processo de degradação
lento".
"Do
ponto de vista da realidade económica e social do país era e é desejável que
não haja nenhuma perturbação política, mas a democracia tem de funcionar",
disse Luís Montenegro, à entrada para uma reunião extraordinária do Conselho
Europeu, em Bruxelas.
Questionado
sobre a perspetiva de eleições legislativas antecipadas, o primeiro-ministro
reconheceu que, como o Governo "está sempre dependente da Assembleia da
República, não tem uma maioria absoluta", pode "sempre acontecer, a
todo o tempo, ser aprovada uma moção de censura ou também pode acontecer, no
caso de o Governo decidir, como decidiu, de apresentar uma moção de confiança,
que ela possa não ser aprovada".
"Eu não
vou antecipar esse momento", respondeu o líder do executivo, acrescentando
que "se o parlamento tem dúvidas quanto à legitimidade do Governo para
executar o seu programa, esse problema tem de ser resolvido".
Interrogado
sobre que explicação ia dar aos outros líderes europeus sobre a instabilidade
política em Portugal, o primeiro-ministro disse que o Governo "não está
limitado" e está em "plenitude de funções".
"Não
haverá nenhuma preocupação por parte dos outros Estados-membros, a situação
portuguesa, do ponto de vista orçamental, financeiro, económico, está
absolutamente estabilizada. Portugal é hoje um dos países com maior
estabilidade económica e financeira da União Europeia [...], superou as
expectativas de crescimento", completou.
O
primeiro-ministro anunciou na quarta-feira que o Governo avançará com a
proposta de uma moção de confiança ao executivo pelo parlamento, "não
tendo ficado claro" que os partidos dão ao executivo condições para
continuar.
"Avançaremos
para a última oportunidade de o fazer que é a aprovação de um voto de
confiança", afirmou Luís Montenegro , na Assembleia da República, na
abertura do debate da moção de censura ao Governo apresentada pelo PCP, que foi
chumbada, para "travar a degradação da situação nacional, 12 dias depois
de responder a outra do Chega, com origem na situação da empresa familiar do
primeiro-ministro.
Com Lusa
PORTUGAL
Politics
The
government has already approved a motion of confidence. Montenegro guarantees
that he will be a candidate in case of early elections
Motion
details work done by the Government since it took office and criticizes the PS:
"An iron will to deepen an artificial climate of wear and tear and
uninterrupted suspicion about the Government."
Nuno
Fernandes
Posted to:
06 Mar 2025,
12:29
Updated to:
06 Mar 2025,
13:02
The
Government has already approved the motion of confidence that it will deliver
to Parliament, an approval that was made this morning in the Council of
Ministers by electronic vote. "The Council of Ministers approved this
Thursday, March 6, by written deliberation and through the Government's
computer network, a Motion of Confidence to be submitted to the Assembly of the
Republic," the statement said.
The debate
on the motion of confidence will have to take place on the third parliamentary
day following the delivery of the document and its rejection implies the fall
of the Government.
The PM,
meanwhile, said in Brussels that if there are elections he wants them to take
place as soon as possible and left the guarantee that he will be the one to go
to the polls in a scenario of early elections: "The political situation is
known, the situation of the Government, the Prime Minister and the PSD is also
known, it will not change."
The motion
of confidence that the Government will present to Parliament argues that
"the country needs political clarification" in the face of doubts
raised about the patrimonial and professional life of the Prime Minister, and
it is "time for each one to assume their responsibilities".
The
Government justifies the presentation of this motion of confidence "to
guarantee effective political stability, essential to the necessary conditions
for it to continue the implementation of its program to transform the
country".
Read the
Government's motion of confidence in full here:
"Effective
stability, with a sense of responsibility
The
Government achieved political stability, promoted social stability and
consolidated economic and financial stability that allowed Portugal to start a
virtuous course focused on solving people's problems and transforming the
country.
Since taking
office, the Government has initiated a true positive transformation in the
country:
With this
Government, public administration careers have been valued, pensions have
increased and taxes have fallen.
With this
Government, unemployment has reached historically low levels, while employment
is at historic highs.
With this
Government, the economy grows well above the European average and the budget
balance shows us a solid surplus.
With this
Government, the public debt and the net external debt have been strongly
reduced to the values of many years ago. As a result, the Republic's rating
recovered to a long-lost level of solidity.
With this
Government, structural decisions were made in infrastructure and mobility, with
emphasis on the new Lisbon airport, the high-speed network, the new crossing
over the Tagus or the green rail pass.
With this
Government, the process of building 59,000 new public houses is underway.
With this
Government, Immigration was controlled and regularized, with rigor and
humanism.
With this
Government, there was a focus on proximity policing and the fight against
violent crime, including domestic violence.
With this
Government, the Health Emergency and Transformation Program is being
implemented and public education is being reformed and modernized.
With this
Government, the "Accelerating the Economy" Programme is being
implemented and investment, public and private, is reaching the ground.
As doubts
were raised about the Prime Minister's professional and patrimonial life, he
provided the necessary clarifications and reiterated the appropriate measures
to prevent any potential conflicts of interest.
Since no
illegality was pointed out, even so, the oppositions persisted in fomenting a
climate of suspicion devoid of factual basis and without the slightest
correlation with reality.
In our
constitutional system, the Government depends on Parliament.
There should
therefore be no doubt as to the conditions that the Government has to continue
to implement its Programme.
In this
sense, the Prime Minister had the opportunity to urge the political parties to
declare, without hesitation, whether they gave the Government the right to
implement its Programme made possible in Parliament less than a year ago.
The
responses of a relevant part of the parties, namely the Socialist Party, as the
largest opposition party, do not allow for the political clarification that the
country needs. On the contrary, these responses and the successive statements
of the main leaders of the Socialist Party seem to reflect an iron will to
deepen an artificial climate of wear and tear and uninterrupted suspicion of
the Government.
No matter
how unfounded the allegations are and how clarifying the Government's responses
may be, it seems to have entered an endless spiral, in which any explanation is
immediately overturned in order to raise a new doubt without reason or sense.
This destructive attitude does not bring anything useful to the democratic
regime, nor does it benefit Portugal and the Portuguese.
The country
needs political clarification and, given these circumstances, this is the time
to achieve it. Portugal's great internal challenges require it, and the
worrying worsening of the international context imposes it. Allowing the
present scenario to drag on would be contrary to the national interest. And the
Government cannot accept it.
To ensure
effective political stability, which is essential to the necessary conditions
for it to continue the implementation of its Programme for the transformation
of the country, it is with a full sense of responsibility and an exclusive
focus on the national interest that the Government submits this motion of
confidence.
It is time
for everyone to assume their responsibilities.
Thus, under
the terms of the applicable constitutional and regimental rules, the Government
requests the Assembly of the Republic to approve a vote of confidence in its
action, in the name of the stability and development of the country."
Montenegro
confirms that he will be a candidate if there are elections
The prime
minister alluded this Thursday to his continuity at the head of the PSD and the
Government if there are early elections following the motion of confidence in
the executive, noting that the situation "will not change", thus
indicating that he will be a candidate in case of early elections.
"The
political situation is known, the situation of the Government, the Prime
Minister and the PSD is also known, it will not change," said Luís
Montenegro, at the entrance to an extraordinary meeting of the European Council
in Brussels.
The prime
minister also argued that "it was desirable" that there was "no
political disturbance" in the country, but insisted that parliament has to
clarify whether it has doubts about the legitimacy of the Government. And he
insisted that if there are early elections, they should take place in a
"short period" to avoid a "slow degradation process".
"From
the point of view of the economic and social reality of the country, it was and
is desirable that there is no political disturbance, but democracy has to
work," said Luís Montenegro, at the entrance to an extraordinary meeting
of the European Council, in Brussels.
Asked about
the prospect of early legislative elections, the Prime Minister acknowledged
that, as the Government "is always dependent on the Assembly of the
Republic, it does not have an absolute majority", it can "always
happen, at any time, a motion of censure is approved or it can also happen, in
the event that the Government decides, as it did, to present a motion of
confidence, that it may not be
approved".
"I am
not going to anticipate that moment," replied the leader of the executive,
adding that "if the parliament has doubts about the legitimacy of the
Government to execute its program, this problem has to be solved."
Asked what
explanation he was going to give to other European leaders about the political
instability in Portugal, the Prime Minister said that the Government "is
not limited" and is in "fullness of functions".
"There will
be no concern on the part of the other member states, the Portuguese situation,
from a budgetary, financial, economic point of view, is absolutely stabilized.
Portugal is today one of the countries with the greatest economic and financial
stability in the European Union [...], it has exceeded growth
expectations," he added.
The prime
minister announced on Wednesday that the Government will move forward with the
proposal of a motion of confidence in the executive by parliament, "it was
not clear" that the parties give the executive conditions to continue.
"We
will move on to the last opportunity to do so, which is the approval of a vote
of confidence", said Luís Montenegro, in the Assembly of the Republic, at
the opening of the debate on the motion of censure of the Government presented
by the PCP, which was rejected, to "stop the degradation of the national
situation, 12 days after responding to another from Chega, originating from the situation of the Prime
Minister's family business.
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