Italy Blasts Push for Permanent German Seat on UN

Date: 25 January 2019 - 20:56

News ID: ۶۲۴۴۱

MILAN (Dispatches) -- Germany and France are making fun of Italy and the European Union with their treaty to give Germany a permanent seat at the United Nations, Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Friday cited Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as saying.
"They are only thinking of their national interests," Corriere cited Conte as saying.
On Tuesday, the leaders of France and Germany signed a new treaty, saying it would be a priority of German-French diplomacy for Germany to be accepted as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
"Certainly our allies cannot believe that we will sit silently at the table to underwrite decisions taken by others," Conte said.
Italy has also been involved in a spat with France in recent days over issues including how to handle migrants travelling to Europe by boat. Italy’s interior minister, the head of one of two populist and euroskeptic parties leading the country, this month called the French leader Emmanuel Macron — who is unabashedly pro-EU — "a terrible president.”
The diplomatic spats are an unwelcome backdrop for the EU, which is due to lose key member Britain in a little more than two months.
Following the signing of the treaty, Merkel said, "We want to give an impulse to European unity.”
The two leaders want the 16-page Aachen Treaty, negotiated over the past year to update the 1963 Elysee Treaty, to give an impulse to European unity that has been strained by Brexit, immigration and the eurozone crisis.
However, experts have their doubts if the Franco-German push for the EU integration could enhance unity among the 28-member bloc’s member states.
"If they succeed, the European Union will surely split into two, as the eurozone and non-eurozone go their separate ways in a fundamental disagreement over sovereignty,” Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, said in an article published on Thursday.
On Tuesday, dozens of "yellow vest” activists gathered in Aachen to protest against the signing of the treaty.
Europe’s divisions were on display Thursday at the World Economic Forum as hundreds of protesters descended on the Swiss ski resort of Davos to lambast the elite attendees for caring more about their balance sheets than the state of the world.
Shouting "anti-capitalista” and other chants, the gathering of socialists, environmentalists and others waved banners and signs that read "Davos Stinks” or "Let them eat money” — while braving sub-zero temperatures near the Davos train station.
The demonstration was originally planned in part to protest against President Donald Trump, who had been expected in Davos this week before cancelling his trip over the U.S. government shutdown.