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New Spanish PM to meet with France’s Macron Saturday
MADRID, June 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
said he will head to Paris Saturday to meet with President Emmanuel Macron
and is also planning to visit Germany and possibly Portugal.
In his first television interview since taking office on June 2, the
Socialist leader also announced Monday that his first “official visit” would
be to Morocco, probably in the second half of the year, as Rabat is
traditionally the first destination for any new Spanish leader.
“I am announcing that I will undertake a consultation tour… with European
colleagues in Berlin, in Paris, and hopefully also in Portugal,” which also
has a Socialist government, Sanchez said Monday.
“The first stage will be next Saturday with the president of the French
Republic (Macron) in Paris,” he said.
Sanchez will have lunch at the Elysee Palace followed by a press
conference, the French president’s office said.
France has offered to take some of the 630 migrants rescued by the ship
Aquarius which arrived in Spain at the weekend after being turned away by
Italy and Malta.
While several European Union nations have adopted a harder line against
refugees, Spain’s new Socialist government has announced a series of measures
to help migrants since it came to power earlier this month, in a break with
the policies of its conservative predecessor.
Sanchez took office after conservative leader Mariano Rajoy was toppled in
a no-confidence vote.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1200 hrs