archivewednesday

BRUSSELS —  The European Union’s executive arm on Wednesday criticized France for running up excessive debt, a stinging rebuke at the height of an election campaign where President Emmanuel Macron is facing a strong challenge from the extreme right and the left. The EU Commission recommended to seven nations, including France, that they start a so-called “excessive deficit procedure,” the first step in a long process before any member state can be hemmed in and moved to take corrective action. “Deficit criteria is not fulfilled in seven of our member states,”...

The fresh remarks come as Lula's criticism of the military mounts, with the commander-in-chief condemning it in recent days for failing to act against the rioting Bolsonaro supporters. "We made an elementary mistake: my intelligence did not exist (that day)," Lula told TV channel GloboNews in an interview. "We have Army intelligence, Air Force intelligence, ABIN (Brazil's Intelligence Agency); none of them warned me." Lula had previously said he suspected there was collusion by "people in the armed forces" in the insurrection, during which several thousand Bolsonaro supporters invaded and...