Berlin [Germany], July 2: French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a long-awaited state visit to Germany on Saturday, amid ongoing rioting in France following the death of a teenager in Paris last week.
Macron was initially due to come to Germany on Monday and Tuesday but asked for the trip to be rearranged, Germany's Office of the Federal President said in a statement.
Under the original plan, Macron was to travel to Germany on Sunday with his wife Brigitte for the three-day visit that was due to include talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and an address on Franco-German relations.
Macron telephoned Steinmeier on Saturday afternoon to tell him about the situation in France, the statement said.
The Elysee Palace confirmed that Macron had requested the delay, that comes as French cities are rocked by riots over police brutality.
The unrest was triggered by the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by police during a traffic check on Tuesday.
French prosecutors are investigating the police officer accused of shooting the teen driver in Nanterre, a working-class suburb of Paris and the officer is in custody.
The incident has triggered four nights of rioting, with 1,311 people arrested, the French Interior Ministry said, with incidents of looting, vandalism and clashes with police.
Macron's visit is to be made up as soon as possible, the statement from Berlin said.
The delay is one more in a series of postponed visits that come amid strains in Franco-German relations.
While cooperation between the two has been a major driver of European integration and policymaking for more than six decades, differences in key policy issues ranging from security and defence to energy supplies and economic challenges have led to tensions.
A high-profile joint cabinet meeting was postponed last year and once it took place in January, the outcome was underwhelming.
More than 1,300 people were arrested as riots over police brutality hit French cities again for the fourth night in a row, despite a massive security presence and the closing of transport lines, authorities said on Saturday. A total of 1,311 rioters were arrested and 79 police officers injured overnight, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday, updating earlier figures given by the authorities who had spoken of almost 1,000 arrests.
Over 1,350 cars were set on fire and a total of 2,560 fires occurred on public roads, according to the ministry.
Interior Minister GeraldDarmanin told reporters on Saturday morning that despite incidents of looting, vandalism and clashes with police, the violence was of "much less intensity" than the previous night.
Across France, about 45,000 police officers were deployed on Friday, including special units. To quell the violence, Darmanin called for a 9 pm halt to bus and tram service throughout the country until further notice.
Rioting in France spilled over into Belgium, with dozens of arrests being reported. France's Le Monde newspaper said that 100 people were arrested in the capital Brussels on Friday, while some 30 arrests also took place in the city of Liege.
More than 60 people were also arrested in Brussels on Thursday.
The unrest, triggered by Tuesday's fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by police during a traffic check, has also been reported in French overseas territories, including French Guiana in South America and the Caribbean island of Martinique.
French President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting on Friday. Contrary to what some expected, Macron did not declare a state of emergency but appealed to parents to keep their teenage children from participating in violent protests.
On Thursday, prosecutors opened a formal manslaughter investigation into the police officer accused of the fatal shooting of the teen driver in Nanterre, a working-class suburb of Paris. The officer is in custody, the public prosecutor's office in Nanterre said. The boy was to be buried on Saturday, according to Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry.
Source: Qatar Tribune