{"id":124086,"date":"2017-10-15T23:15:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T03:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=124086"},"modified":"2017-10-15T23:15:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T03:15:12","slug":"france-macron-challenges-trump-on-iran-disowns-weinstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/15\/france-macron-challenges-trump-on-iran-disowns-weinstein\/","title":{"rendered":"France: Macron challenges Trump on Iran, disowns Weinstein"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"French<\/a>
French President Emmanuel Macron challenged Donald Trump’s hard-line stance on Iran, vowed to revoke Harvey Weinstein’s Legion of Honor award and insisted Sunday that \u201cFrance is back\u201d on the world arena. (Photo<\/a>: Emmanuel Macron\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron challenged Donald Trump’s hard-line stance on Iran, vowed to revoke Harvey Weinstein’s Legion of Honor award and insisted Sunday that \u201cFrance is back\u201d on the world arena.<\/p>\n

But Macron’s real problems lay at home. And in his first national television interview since his election, the 39-year-old leader struggled to claw back public support for his \u201ceconomic transformation\u201d of a stagnant France and to shed his image as a president of the rich.<\/p>\n

Though he came into the presidency little-prepared to lead a nuclear-armIed country, Macron played on his international stature during his appearance on the TF1 network.<\/p>\n

He suggested he helped persuade Trump not to \u201ctear up\u201d the international accord curbing Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for resumed trade. Trump stopped short of pulling out of the deal in a speech Friday, but accused Iran of violating it and held open the possibility of a U.S. withdrawal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to make things tougher with Iran … I explained to him that for me that is a bad method,\u201d Macron said. \u201cLook at the Korea situation. We broke off all negotiations with Korea. What is the result? A few years later we have a country that is about to have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

To drive home his support for the Iranian accord, the French leader pledged to visit Iran soon.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was concerned that what critics see as Trump’s erratic leadership is dangerous or worrying, Macron said no.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. is our ally,\u201d Macron said, stressing the importance of military co-operation against Islamic extremists in Syria and beyond.<\/p>\n

He defended the idea of multilateralism, instead of each country for itself, but he also insisted that France will not quietly bow to the U.S. or other interests.<\/p>\n

Macron also pointed to French accomplishments since his election: the choice of Paris to host the 2024 Olympics and the victory of France’s candidate to lead U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re here. France is back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The president showed no sympathy for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who is facing a tsunami of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have started the steps to withdraw the Legion of Honor award\u201d bestowed on Weinstein in 2012 for his work on Oscar-winning French film \u201cThe Artist,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n

He pledged new measures against sexual harassment, notably in public transport, and speeded-up procedures for investigating and prosecuting such acts to encourage more women to come forward when abused.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing is to talk. It’s not the women who should be ashamed, it’s the men,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When it came to what matters most to the French \u2014 the economy and their jobs \u2014 Macron appeared both combative and defensive. He refused to apologize for blunt language about workers in a struggling factory \u201cscrewing everything up\u201d instead of looking for work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t trying to humiliate. … I take full responsibility for what was said,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He promised 15 billion euros for training programs for workers to \u201carm yourselves to find a place in this society that’s changing.\u201d He said it will take a couple of years for his reforms to bear fruit.<\/p>\n

Macron sought to convince viewers that his moves to dismantle some of France’s vaunted worker protections will ultimately create jobs by giving employers more flexibility to hire and fire instead of scaring investors away.<\/p>\n

Macron upended France’s political system earlier this year with an unconventional campaign and new centrist party, but his poll numbers tumbled over the summer amid anger over his labour reforms and his clumsy handling of internal politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron challenged Donald Trump’s hard-line stance on Iran, vowed to revoke Harvey Weinstein’s Legion of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":124094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16,17],"tags":[9869,16067,18205,312,27929],"class_list":["post-124086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","category-news-w","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-iran","tag-stance","mauthors-angela-charlton","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}