BERLIN (AP) — People have taken to the streets of Berlin, London, Paris and other cities around the world to demonstrate in support of Black Lives Matter…
BERLIN (AP) — People have taken to the streets of Berlin, London, Paris and other cities around the world to demonstrate in support of Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States and to vent anger over President Donald Trump’s response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
But at the top, the leaders of traditional allies of the United States have taken pains to avoid criticizing Trump directly, walking a fine line to reconcile international diplomacy with domestic outrage.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau let silence speak for itself when asked to comment on the decision to forcibly clear peaceful protesters outside the White House to make way for a Trump photo-op at a nearby church, standing pensively at his lectern apparently mulling his answer for more than 20 seconds before answering that Canada also suffered from “systemic discrimination” — never mentioning the American president.
“We need to be allies in the fight against discrimination, we need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to work hard to fix, to figure out how we can be part of the solution on fixing things,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sidestepped questions from ZDF public television about Trump last week, saying the killing of Floyd was “really, really terrible. Racism is something terrible, and society in the United States is very polarized.”
When pressed, she conceded that Trump’s “political style is a very controversial one” but would go no further when asked if she had confidence in him.
A combination of factors are at work, including diplomatic courtesy but also pragmatism based on the possibility that Trump will be reelected to another four years in November, said Sudha David-Wilp, deputy director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund think tank.
“It wouldn’t be proper for his peers to criticize, especially when it’s very obvious that they are concerned that the United States is going through an incredibly difficult time — you have the triple whammy of an economic depression, health crisis and now, of course, social unrest due to questions of racism,” she said.
