Bulgaria’s president on Sunday denounced “ham-handed” comments by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron regarding Bulgarian immigrants that have triggered an outcry in the eastern European EU member. Macron “has clearly stated his ambitions to become Europe’s leader, but his ideas will be difficult to achieve if he expresses himself in such a ham-handed way,” Roumen Radev told journalists. The comments were “base (and) ham-handed”, Radev said. Already on Friday, Ukraine summoned France’s ambassador to Kiev over the remarks, and on Saturday Bulgaria said it would do the same. On Sunday, France’s European affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, said EU members should work together to fight people smuggling across the bloc’s borders.

Source: The Guardian November 03, 2019 14:48 UTC