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Angela Merkel had in the past softened French rhetoric on EU defence (Photo: bundeskanzlerin.de)

France calls for EU 'army' to contain Russia

The EU needs a "real European army" to defend itself against Russia, the French president has said.

It also needs to fight populists such as Hungary's Viktor Orban and Italy's Matteo Salvini by becoming less "ultra-liberal", he added.

"We will not protect Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army," Emmanuel Macron told the France 1 radio station in an interview in Verdun, a WWI memorial site, in France on Tuesday (6 November).

"Faced with a Russia which is at...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

Angela Merkel had in the past softened French rhetoric on EU defence (Photo: bundeskanzlerin.de)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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