Visiting Poland this week, French President Emmanuel Macron slammed the country’s government over its moves to take control of the judiciary, denouncing a “negation of European political principles”. In a tit-for-tat move, Polish members of the European Parliament launched a petition denouncing French police violence in recent demonstrations as “unjustified brutality against protestors exercising their civil rights”. The row has escalated through the week, and returned the spotlight to crowd policing methods in France, already the subject of outspoken concern from international bodies, and which over the past year have left hundreds injured, many seriously. Ellen Salvi reports.
During a two-day official visit to Poland this week, French President Emmanuel Macron blew hot and cold on strained bilateral relations, which have become clouded over the past two years by the nationalist conservative Polish government’s conflictual stance within the European Union, including on climate policy goals, and above all its domestic reforms to give it firm control over courts and judges in flagrant contradiction with rule-of-law commitments required of EU member states.
