The EU will once again have a cooperative US partner when Joe Biden becomes president, but Europeans should harbour no illusions: Washington will be no globo-cop nor NATO’s big protector, leaders and analysts say.

“Great day for US and Europe, we look forward to working together with new administration to rebuild our partnership,” the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said in a tweet congratulating Biden on his election victory over President Donald Trump.

But Jean-Claude Juncker, former European Commission president, earlier offered a typically blunt assessment: “Joe Biden isn’t going to change Washington’s approach to international issues overnight, because he can’t.”

And Sebastien Maillard, head of the Jacques Delors Institute named after an influential former EU chief, cautioned that “the Europeans need to learn to live without American global leadership.”

“For the foreseeable future, the US will be preoccupied with itself,” agreed German political scientist, Markus Kaim.

The comments spoke to an expectation that there was no going back to seeing America as the West’s sheriff, flexing military muscles across the world in the ways it did in the decades following the Cold War.

While the US still maintains aircraft carrier battle groups in different regions, and bases including in Europe, South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan and Bahrain, it has been withdrawing from conflict zones under a trend accelerated by Trump but started by his predecessor Barack Obama.

More notably, within the past two decades much of its military focus has moved to Asia, away from Europe. 

Nathalie Tocci, head of the Italian think tank the Instituto Affari Internazionali, added: “We are witnessing the end of American imperialism with the United States no longer wanting to be the world’s policeman.”

So what can Europeans expect from the new US president?

“Things are going to get a lot easier, because Joe Biden understands Europe better than Donald Trump,” Juncker said.

Nevertheless, cautioned a diplomat posted to Brussels, “you shouldn’t expect radical change”.

Europeans will “once again have a partner, an ally, but they need to bolster their strategic autonomy in the economic arena and in terms of security, to be able to defend their interests,” he continued.

Jean-Dominique Giuliani, head of the Schuman Foundation, reinforced that point by saying EU leaders must “define what they want to do with America, and not simply wait for it to tell them”.

Trade and climate change

“With Biden as president, the EU could expect and welcome a much more predictable and constructive US-EU relationship on trade, NATO, Iran, the Middle East and above all on climate change, if the US re-enters the Paris climate agreement,” predicted Mujtaba Rahman, director of the Europe office of the Eurasia Group risk analysis firm.

Trade in particular is expected to flow with much less of the friction that marked the Trump years.

Under Trump, Washington flexed trade muscles by slapping higher tariffs on steel and aluminium, prompting Europe to prepare a riposte. A truce was reached on the promise of a mini trade deal, but that has still not been realised.

On climate change, Biden has already stated he wants to return the US to the Paris climate accord.

He has likewise signalled he wants to reverse pullouts Trump ordered for the World Health Organization and the Iran nuclear deal.

But there are some repairs Biden is not likely to carry out, among them the US show of force to China’s assertive policies and the desire to reduce American involvement in conflicts far from its soil.

Those stances are popular domestically, explained Nicole Koenig, a Berlin-based defence specialist for the Jacques Delors Institute.

What will change will be the style.

“Joe Biden will inform and coordinate with his allies,” she said.

‘Division of labour’

Trump’s unilateral decisions and antagonism towards some of leaders of NATO countries created tensions and divisions within the Alliance.

Its chief, Jen Stoltenberg, expended a lot of energy “to appease the beast,” one diplomat said.

NATO can hope for a normalisation with Biden, but analysts believe Washington will stay retrenched in looking out for US interests.

“That will be uncomfortable for the Europeans,” whose NATO members are split between a pro-Europe camp and an Atlanticist one, said Kaim.

“Illusions of European strategic autonomy must come to an end: Europeans will not be able to replace America’s crucial role as a security provider,” warned Germany’s defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, in an opinion piece for the Politico website.

Kaim suggested that Biden’s approach would be to propose to the Europeans “a simple division of labour: you will help us in Europe so that we can become more involved in Asia”.

Source: AFP

Five years after Europe’s migrant crisis, Brussels will propose on Wednesday that member states share the responsibility for asylum seekers under a “compulsory solidarity mechanism”. But it could spark outrage from countries such as Austria, whose Chancellor Sebastian Kurz warned against any attempts to force EU countries to take in migrants.

The New Pact on Migration and Asylum will be unveiled by European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas.

Johansson wants the 27 member states to commit to sharing the burden of handling asylum claims from migrants arriving on the bloc’s shores. “It’s obvious to everybody that ad hoc solidarity or voluntary solidarity is not enough. That has been proven for many years now,” she said. “It has to be mandatory.”

The plan will make showing solidarity with all EU countries on the front lines – often Greece, Italy or Malta – compulsory when they are “under pressure” from arrivals.

It may mean aid will no longer be limited to EU countries to where asylum seekers are relocated, but will be directed to other nations to return refused asylum seekers back to their country of origin.

Outcry expected

It is hoped that this measure will pacify EU countries like those of the Visegrad group – Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia – who have persistently failed to welcome asylum seekers.

Still, it may prove tough to pass. Speaking to AFP in an exclusive interview, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has already warned the EU against forcing states to take in asylum seekers. “We find that the distribution in Europe (of asylum seekers) has failed and many states reject this. It won’t work like this,” the 34-year-old conservative leader said.

Austria and other smaller countries – some of them, such as Hungary, criticised by Brussels over their anti-immigration stance and on rule-of-law issues – have spoken out in the past against any mandatory asylum-seeker distribution.

European migration policy was again in the headlines earlier this month following a devastating fire at an overcrowded camp for migrants and asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos which left thousands homeless.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the new proposals would include plans to strengthen border security and return failed asylum seekers, which Kurz and allies are in favour of, while also including “a new strong solidarity mechanism.”

Seeking alliances

Kurz said he welcomed that the European Commission was addressing the topic of asylum and migration.

“We can only solve this topic all together… Better protection of the (EU’s) outer borders, a joined fight against smugglers, but also joined aid where it is needed (in countries where refugees come from), that is the path that is needed,” he said.

Kurz, pushing to make his mark in European politics, has also sought allies on other topics, such as when he worked with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark – as the so-called “Frugal Four” – to oppose direct EU aid to coronavirus-hit countries as proposed by Germany and France.

“The European Union is more than just Germany and France… As a small or medium-sized state of course one has to always look for alliances, and in an EU with 27 member states one can only assert ideas if there are others that support them,” he told AFP in an office in the chancellery.

Coronavirus ‘challenge’

Kurz became the world’s youngest chancellor when his conservative People’s Party (OeVP) formed a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) in 2017.

The coalition fell apart in 2019 after a corruption scandal engulfed the far-right FPOe leader, leading to fresh elections in which Kurz’s party again gathered the most votes.

Kurz then formed a new coalition with the Greens and has governed the Alpine country of nearly nine million people since January.

Kurz said fighting the coronavirus pandemic was “a very big challenge”.

“I am still relatively young, but I have been part of the Austrian government for many years and I thought I had already been through a lot politically… The corona crisis now exceeds all previous experiences of course,” he said.

The country has so far been spared the brunt of the crisis, reporting almost 40,000 cases with 771 deaths to date, but infections have surged again in recent weeks.

This has led to the government to extend mandatory mask wearing and re-instate some of the other restrictions imposed earlier this year to stem the spread of the virus.

Source: France 24 and AFP

Germans are more concerned with the policies of Donald Trump than the coronavirus pandemic, according to an annual survey that says the respondents believed the US president’s policies would make the world a more dangerous place.

An annual survey, entitled “Fears of Germans,” said some 53% of those asked put the US president on the top of the list of their worries.

The survey did not give details on which aspects of Trump’s policies worried Germans.

According to political scientist Manfred Schmidt of the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg, Germans are concerned over Trump’s foreign policy.

The US says it will withdraw about 12,000 of its troops from Germany and place them in other European countries to counter Russia.

“Particularly notable are the trade-war-like conflicts with China and trade and security policy attacks against allies, including Germany,” he said.

“In addition, the withdrawal of the United States from international cooperation and the confrontation with Iran,” Schmidt added.

The survey that was conducted in June and July said rising living costs, the economic situation and the cost to taxpayers of European Union debt came second, third and fourth for traditionally cautious Germans.

Thousands of people reportedly signed up to attend the demonstration against coronavirus measures before it was banned by city authorities.

The coronavirus, which has wreaked havoc on Germany, has concerned Germans much less than Trump’s policies.

Only around a third of those asked in the survey said they were concerned that they or someone they knew well would get COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

The new infections are rising again, with health authorities having recorded a total number of 258,107 cases of infection and 9,419 coronavirus related deaths.

Source: Presstv

Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, with Brussels exploring possible legal action against London.

After Britain explicitly said it would act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London.

European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic will meet British counterpart Michael Gove in London at 1200 GMT alongside scheduled trade talks between chief negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost.

If the EU is unhappy with what London says, it could use a part of the Withdrawal Agreement to take legal action against Britain, though there would be no resolution before the end-of-year deadline for Britain’s full exit.

“The dispute-settling mechanism under the Withdrawal Agreement is there,” an EU diplomat dealing with Brexit told Reuters.

Two EU officials also involved in the talks said the Commission would analyse Britain’s proposed Internal Market Bill – overriding parts of the Withdrawal Agreement – once it is passed to take into account any amendments before making a final decision on the legal case.

The British government says its planned law merely clarifies ambiguities in the Withdrawal Agreement, but also says its main priority is the 1998 Northern Irish peace deal.

Europe’s leaders have been handed an ultimatum: accept the treaty breach or prepare for a messy divorce when Britain disentangles itself from the EU at the end of the year.

Britain signed the treaty and formally left the EU in January, but remains a member in all but name until the end of 2020 under a status quo agreement.

Sterling was flat at $1.2999 though overnight sterling implied volatility rose to 13%, its highest since March 26, and the FTSE 100 share index slipped.

Ireland

Talks on a trade deal have snagged on state aid rules and fishing.

Without an agreement, nearly $1 trillion in trade between the EU and Britain could be thrown into confusion at the beginning of 2021, a further economic blow as they deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest dispute centres on rules for Northern Ireland, which shares a land border with EU member Ireland. Under the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that ended decades of violence, there must be no hard border in Ireland.

To ensure that, Britain’s EU divorce agreement calls for some EU rules to continue to apply in Northern Ireland. But Britain wants power to override many of them, acknowledging this would violate international law.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said any potential U.S.-UK trade deal would not pass the U.S. Congress if Britain undermined the 1998 agreement.

Former British leaders Theresa May and John Major scolded Johnson, whose government put forward the Internal Market Bill on Wednesday, for considering an explicit, intentional breach of international law.

“If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained,” Major said.

European diplomats said Britain was playing a game of Brexit “chicken”, threatening to wreck the process and challenging Brussels to change course. Some fear Johnson may view a no-deal exit as a useful distraction from the pandemic.

“I’m not optimistic at this stage,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin told national broadcaster RTE when asked how confident he was in a trade deal being reached.

“I think yesterday’s development, because it undermines trust in negotiations, makes it all the more difficult to get to where everyone says they want to get to, which is a free trade agreement with no tariffs and no quotas.”

Source: REUTERS

French President Emmanuel Macron led nationwide outrage Saturday after an ultra-conservative magazine portrayed a black lawmaker as a slave.

The French presidency said Macron called Danielle Obono from the far-left party France Unbowed and “expressed his clear condemnation of any form of racism”.

The magazine, Valeurs Actuelles, which caters to readers on the right and far right, showed Obono in chains with an iron collar on her neck to illustrate a seven-page imaginary story.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said it was a “revolting publication that calls for clear condemnation” and told Obono that she had the government’s backing.

“I share the indignation of lawmaker Obono,” he said.

“One is free to write a putrid novel within the limits fixed by the law. One is free to hate it. I hate it,” said Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.

Obono tweeted: “The extreme right — odious, stupid and cruel. In brief, like itself.”

The anti-racism body SOS Racisme deplored rising hate speech against African and Arab politicians and said it was mulling what legal measures could be taken to counter this.

The magazine however denied it was racist, saying the story concerning Obono was “a work of fiction… but never nasty.”

An official from France’s far-right National Rally party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, said the story was “in absolute bad taste”.

France witnessed several protests in June and July against racial injustice as well as colonial and police brutality, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd’s death at the knee of police in the United States.

Macron, a centrist, who raised eyebrows when he gave an interview to Valeurs Actuelles last year and praised it as a “good magazine”, has pledged to root out racism.

But he also said France will not take down statues of figures linked to the colonial era or the slave trade, as has happened in other countries recently.

(AFP)

Chancellor Angela Merkel presented Germany’s priorities for its six-month term at the helm of the EU presidency on Wednesday, urging swift action to shore up economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic while underscoring that the crisis had exposed the limits of “fact-denying populism”.

The coronavirus pandemic is showing the limits of “fact-denying populism,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the European Parliament on Wednesday as she set out her country’s plans for its six-month presidency of the European Union.

Germany took over the task of chairing EU meetings on July 1 and faces the challenge of seeking a compromise on a coronavirus recovery fund for the 27-nation bloc as well as the EU’s budget for the next seven years as the continent faces up to the task of pulling out of a deep recession.

 Merkel ‘has no illusions about how tough it will be’

“The depth of the economic decline demands that we hurry,” Merkel told lawmakers. “We must waste no time – only the weakest would suffer from that. I very much hope that we can reach an agreement this summer. That will require a lot of readiness to compromise from all sides – and from you too.”

“We must not be naive: In many member states, opponents of Europe are just waiting to misuse the crisis for their ends,” she said. “We must show them all where the added value of cooperation in the European Union lies. We must show that a return to nationalism means not more, but less control.”

Without explicitly naming any countries or politicians, Merkel pointed to cautionary examples elsewhere.

“We are seeing at the moment that the pandemic can’t be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it be with hatred and agitation,” she said.

“Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits,” she added to applause. “In a democracy, facts and transparency are needed. That distinguishes Europe, and Germany will stand up for it during its presidency.”

Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in May proposed creating a one-time 500 billion-euro ($563 billion) recovery fund that would be filled through shared EU borrowing. That is a big step for Germany, breaking with its long-standing opposition to any kind of joint borrowing.

The EU’s executive Commission expanded on the proposal, putting forward plans for a 750 billion-euro fund made up mostly of grants. It faces resistance from countries dubbed the “Frugal Four” – Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden – that oppose grants and are reluctant to give money away without strings attached.

“It is right and important for the regions particularly hard hit by the crisis, and above all the people who live there, to be able to count on our solidarity,” Merkel said Wednesday. “It is in our very own interests – but at the same time, that also means the effort that is necessary for the good of all must not overburden the economically strong member states in a one-sided way.”

Source: AP

Germany takes over the European Union’s six-month presidency Wednesday, with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel staking her legacy on a massive economic recovery plan to help the bloc cope with the coronavirus fallout.

Merkel’s last major role on the international stage comes as the 27-member club faces its deepest recession since World War II, triggered by a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people globally.

The crisis has galvanised Europe’s most powerful leader who, with just over a year left in her final term, has ditched her usual wait-and-see approach to call for “extraordinary measures” to weather the storm.

“Europe’s future is our future,” Merkel said Monday as she stood beside French President Emmanuel Macron to push for a 750-billion-euro ($843 billion) coronavirus recovery fund.

The proposed fund would controversially be financed through shared EU borrowing and marks a stunning U-turn for Germany after years of opposition to debt pooling.

The EU’s rotating presidency is Merkel’s “last chance” to make her mark as one of Europe’s great leaders, Der Spiegel weekly wrote, adding that it was time for Germany to shoulder more responsibility as the bloc’s biggest nation and top economy.

“For years the chancellor put off dealing with the chronic problems of the EU and the euro. Now, towards the end of her political career, she has the opportunity to make up for past mistakes,” Spiegel wrote.

There will be no shortage of challenges to tackle in the months ahead.

Post-Brexit negotiations, a more assertive China, rocky transatlantic ties, climate change and the conflicts in Libya and Syria will all be jostling for attention, even if the pandemic promises to dominate the agenda.

‘Extraordinary solidarity’

Germany kicked off its EU custodianship by projecting the words “Together for Europe’s recovery” onto Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate late Tuesday.

After 15 years in office, Merkel is the bloc’s longest-serving leader and held the EU presidency once before, in 2007.

But the stakes are higher this time.

A first major test will come at a July 17-18 EU summit, where Merkel hopes leaders will reach an agreement on the 750-billion-euro rescue fund put forward by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen — Merkel’s former defence minister.

The money is expected to come mainly in the form of grants for countries hardest hit by the pandemic, such as debt-laden Italy and Spain.

But so-called frugal nations including Austria and the Netherlands want to reign in the spending and are insisting on loans rather than grants.

Merkel has urged holdout nations to “engage in an extraordinary act of solidarity”, warning that an uneven recovery could undermine the EU single market and end up harming stronger economies too.

“We hope we can find a solution, even if the road is still long,” Merkel said at the press conference alongside Macron.

Brexit warning

The fund is based on an idea unveiled by the French-German duo in May, in which the European Commission would raise money on the financial markets to help pay for the post-pandemic recovery in poorer member states.

If accepted, the rescue fund would be a milestone for EU unity.

It would also be a big win for Berlin, and could ease some of the lingering resentment from the eurozone debt crisis a decade ago when Merkel’s government insisted on harsh austerity for struggling nations like Greece.

Another contentious issue that could define Germany’s EU presidency is Brexit.

After weeks of standstill, Britain and the EU have resumed negotiations about the country’s divorce deal with the bloc — which could still result in a hard Brexit at the end of the year.

In an interview with several newspapers last week, Merkel warned that Britain would “have to live with the consequences” of having weaker economic ties with the EU.

Source: AFP

Germany is investigating 30,000 suspects as part of a probe into an online paedophile network, the latest in a series of child sex abuse scandals that prompted authorities to promise a crackdown.

The probe began last October with the arrest of a suspected perpetrator in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne.

But investigators digging into the case have turned up a far bigger paedophile network than expected.

“I did not expect, not even remotely, the extent of child abuse on the internet,” North Rhine-Westphalia’s justice minister Peter Beisenbach told reporters on Monday.

What the investigation team had uncovered was “deeply disturbing”, he said.

“We must recognise that child abuse on the internet is more widespread than we had previously thought.”

The cyber crime office in North Rhine-Westphalia is now “investigating 30,000 unknown suspects” in the case linked to the city of Bergisch Gladbach, said Beisenbach.

“We want to drag perpetrators and supporters of child abuse out of the anonymity of the internet,” he added.

Those being investigated are suspected of sharing “child and youth pornographic content” including “fictitious and/or real acts of abuse” in anonymous online discussion forums and chat groups, the cyber crime office ZAC NRW said in a statement.

To date, just over 70 suspects have been identified throughout Germany.

In May, the first offender — a 27-year-old soldier — was sentenced to 10 years in prison and placed in a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period.

‘Emotional murder’

Germany has been shocked at the discovery of several serious cases of child sex abuse over the past 18 months.

In early June, 11 people were arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children and filming their actions after videos and photos were seized from the cellar of a 27-year-old man from the city of Muenster, also in North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Investigators said they had identified at least three victims, aged five, 10 and 12 years old.

Officials said then that investigative capacities on child abuse had been increased, which would likely lead to the discovery of more cases.

The case triggered calls from politicians to crack down on those using and sharing child pornography, with calls for it to be classed as a crime rather than just an offence.

“Child abuse cannot be punished like shoplifting. It is murder. Not physically but emotionally. Anyone who molests children must be punished as a criminal, fullstop,” said North Rhine Westphalia interior minister Herbert Reul.

Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht in mid-June conceded offenders would in future receive a sentence of at least one year. “Anyone who commits such disgusting crimes must feel the full force of the law,” she said.

Campsite abuse

In an earlier scandal in Luegde, 125 kilometres (80 miles) from Muenster, several men abused children several hundred times at a campsite over a period of several years.

Prosecutors said more than 40 children fell victim to the men at the “Eichwald” campsite between 1998 and 2018, most of them between three and 14 years old at the time.

Some 33 witnesses, including 16 victims and 12 relatives, testified before the court in the trial, many of them behind closed doors.

Child sex abuse was also placed in the spotlight when police announced in May they suspected a German man of having murdered missing British girl Madeleine McCann.

The 43-year-old suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, has a long criminal past and a history of child sex abuse.

(AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron visited London on Thursday for a ceremony to mark the anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s call for wartime resistance against Nazi Germany.

Macron’s visit, his first trip outside France since the coronavirus pandemic, marks the 80th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s radio address to the French nation, in which he laid the foundations of the Resistance.

The address was broadcast from London by the BBC on June 18, 1940, shortly after the Nazi invasion of France, and with the blessing of Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill.

Macron, who was accompanied by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, bestowed the Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, on the city of London.

In turn, Britain bestowed awards on four French Resistance fighters: Edgard Tupet-Thome, 100; Daniel Cordier, 99; Hubert Germain, 99, and Pierre Simonet, 98. They were not present, but will receive their awards in France later.

The four are the only surviving holders of the Croix de la Libération (Cross of Liberation), an honour bestowed by de Gaulle on 1,038 men and women who distinguished themselves in the struggle to liberate France.

Source: France 24

Thousands demonstrated in Berlin against racism and for broader fairness, including sharing the coronavirus burden, as they stretched a human chain through the German capital Sunday while keeping safe distances.

Hundreds also turned out in other cities like Leipzig and Hamburg, although some faced rainstorms in the tail-end of a weekend of harsh weather across Germany.

A spokesman for progressive movement Unteilbar (Indivisible) told AFP “more than 20,000 people” had participated in the event in Berlin, while police estimated around 8,000.

The route of the human chain — stretching from the world-famous Brandenburg Gate past the landmark Communist-era TV tower at Alexanderplatz and down into the ethnically diverse Neukoelln district — had to be extended to accommodate the numbers.

“The coronavirus is worsening existing inequalities. Many people are threatened with being left behind. We will not allow that,” said Unteilbar spokesman Georg Wissmeier in a statement.

“Human rights, social justice and climate justice belong together indivisibly.”

Over 10,000 people gathered in Berlin under the banner of Black Lives Matter last weekend in response to the May 25 killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the slogan was also in evidence on banners and T-shirts Sunday.

But the organisers of the latest demonstration posted a broader set of aims on their website.

– Coal mines to migrant camps –

Their demands include better working conditions and pay for all including migrants, affordable housing, upholding asylum rights, relaunching the economy along green lines and allowing workers more say in how companies are run.

“Who bears the costs of the global crisis, who will be stronger afterwards and who weaker — that’s being decided now,” Unteilbar organisers wrote.

Different groups ran individual stretches of the human chain, ranging from political parties like the Greens and Left party to civil society organisations like “Grannies against the far right” and the Fridays for Future youth climate movement.

And appearances by musicians and campaigners along the demonstration route were broadcast by organisers in a live stream of the event.

Messages from the “Ende Gelaende” group that has staged sit-ins at open-cast coal mines and fossil power plants appeared alongside an appeal from an Afghan filmmaker who lived in Greece’s overcrowded Moria refugee camp for six months.

“Everything is getting worse on the island” of Lesbos, where many people fleeing the Middle East via Turkey first reach European soil, Ahmad Ebrahimi told viewers.

“Please do anything you can” to help, he urged.

– Virus fears –

Ahead of Sunday’s demonstration, some had warned that the gatherings could provoke new transmission of the coronavirus.

“People not maintaining distance, shouting and chanting when packed close together — those are ideal conditions” for infection, Social Democratic Party (SPD) MP and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

On their website, Unteilbar organisers urged sticking to “a responsible form of protest in times of pandemic and crisis”, telling participants to remain three metres (yards) apart to minimise the risk of coronavirus transmission.

As the human chain got under way, stewards handed out strips of brightly coloured tape cut to the right length as a guide.

Participants’ infection control precautions had been “exemplary”, a police spokesman told AFP, adding that people had kept their distance and worn facemasks.

Source: AFP