BRUSSELS : The chair of EU national leaders, Donald Tusk, urged Czech President Milos Zeman on Monday to pursue cooperation with the European Union following his re-election after a campaign critical of the bloc.
In a message of congratulations, European Council President Tusk wrote: “I trust that your country will continue to play an active and constructive role within the European Union.”
The former Polish prime minister, who has tried to calm mounting frictions between wealthier governments in the west and former-communist EU members in the east, highlighted his own efforts to get the Union to “better respond to European citizens’ concerns” — a nod to popular worries over issues such as immigration, on which Zeman based some of his campaigning.
Asked whether the European Commission was troubled by Zeman’s re-election, a spokesman for the EU executive said it respected the vote: “We are not worried,” he told reporters.
Later on Monday, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was to host Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who has support from Zeman as he struggles to form a government following a parliamentary election in October.
EU’s Tusk urges Czech President Zeman to cooperate in Europe
EU’s Tusk urges Czech President Zeman to cooperate in Europe
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
