Charlottesville violence: Emmanuel Macron condemns xenophobia, backs anti-racism activists in US

Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron backed anti-racism activists in the United States on Thursday in a message that avoided criticising US president Donald Trump over his reaction to violence in Charlottesville. [caption id=“attachment_3698215” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Emmanuel Macron. AP[/caption] “On the side of those who combat racism and xenophobia. Our common fight, yesterday and today. #Charlottesville,” he wrote on Twitter. Germany’s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday that Trump had made “a huge mistake” by failing to clearly condemn a white supremacist, neo-Nazi and “alt-right” rally in Charlottesville. Violence broke out at the Charlottesville rally called to protest plans to remove a statue of pro-slavery Confederate leader Robert E Lee. One counter-protester was killed when a suspected Nazi sympathiser drove a car into a crowd.