EU leaders vow firm response to Trump
AFP
AFP, PARIS: The EUs traditional power couple France and Germany expressed mounting alarm Saturday at key decisions by US President Donald Trump in his first week in office, saying they raised many issues of concern.
French President Francois Hollande vowed a firm response to a growing list of pronouncements by the maverick tycoon, including his encouragement for Brexit and suspension of all refugee arrivals.
We must conduct firm dialogue with the new American administration which has shown it has its own approach to the problems we all face, the French leader said after a meeting of southern EU countries in Lisbon, flanked by fellow leaders.
Another EU founder member, Luxembourg, also said Trump risks bolstering hatred towards the West by slapping tight new controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries including war-wracked Syria.
Hollande spoke out a day after Trumpwho has made clear he thinks other EU countries will leave the bloccalled Britains decision to leave the European Union a wonderful thing.
When he talks about Brexit being a model for other countries, I think we must respond, he said, adding that Trumps protectionist measures could destabilise economies not just in Europe but the economies of the main countries of the world.
Trump has announced a series of controversial decisions, making good on what some thought may have been electioneering campaign pledges, on an almost daily basis since taking office on January 20.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose country voted to leave the EU last June plunging the bloc into an unprecedented crisis, became the first world leader to meet Trump in Washington on Friday. Keen to forge a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States and other countries, she refused to condemn Trumps refugee suspension Saturday.
