French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday said Europe would not give in to bullies or be intimidated, in a scathing criticism of US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs if Europe does not let him take over Greenland.
While other European leaders have tried to keep a measured tone to prevent the trans-Atlantic dispute from escalating, Macron came out swinging.
France, and Europe, will not ‘passively accept the law of the strongest’, Macron said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that doing otherwise would lead to their ‘vassalisation’.
Instead, he said, Europe will continue to stand up for territorial sovereignty and the rule of law, despite what he called a shift towards a world without rules. That could include the EU responding with its own steep trade sanctions.
“We do prefer respect to bullies,” Macron said. “And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.”
Macron wore aviator sunglasses during his speech, which the Elysee Palace said was to protect his eyes because of a burst blood vessel.
He delivered the speech after Trump threatened huge tariffs against French wine and champagne and posted private messages from Macron, an unusual breach of diplomatic discretion.
Washington’s ‘endless accumulation’ of new tariffs is ‘fundamentally unacceptable’, Macron said in Davos, ‘even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty’.
EU leaders decided over the weekend to convene in Brussels tomorrow evening for an emergency summit on Greenland.
Macron has pushed for the EU also to consider the first use of its Anti-Coercion Instrument, informally known as the ‘trade bazooka’, which could limit US access to public tenders or restrict trade in services such as tech platforms. Macron said yesterday it was ‘crazy’ it had gone that far.
A few hours later, Trump published on his Truth Social account a screenshot of an exchange with Macron.
In the exchange, which a source close to Macron said was authentic, Macron told Trump “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” and offered to host a G7 meeting inviting Russia and others.
Neither Trump nor the French source disclosed the date of the messages.
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