Merkel and Hollande urge Europe to pull together

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande have urged European politicians to pull together amid multiple crises in a highly unusual bid to heal divisions within the European Union caused by the influx of refugees, debt crises and encroaching nationalist sentiment.

The separate addresses to the European Parliament in Strasbourg by the most powerful proponents of European unity underscored the risks now besetting the EU’s 28 nations.