France’s Foreign Minister said Wednesday Europe must not flinch in protecting European interests from President-elect Donald Trump.
“We have to meet the challenge for a Europe that must be able to better defend its citizens and its interests,” French Foreign Minsiter Jean-Marc Ayrault told French media. Ayrault called Trump’s statements on foreign policy “confused” and shocking to traditional U.S. allies.
“Europe cannot blink after Brexit, after the election of Donald Trump with all the questions being raised, Europe must stand together more, be more active and go more on the offensive even if it is just to protect itself,” Ayrault elaborted. Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe lamented that Trump’s election “forces us to reorganize ourselves because the United States will defend its interests so we will need to defend ours, those of France and Europe, so in a way the ball is in our court.”
French President Francois Hollande, himself wildly unpopular in France with a 4 percent, approval rating, told reporters, “This American election opens a period of uncertainty,” Hollande continued “In the context we need a strong France and a united Europe capable of expressing and carrying out its policy everywhere where its values and interests are put into question.”
Hollande faces a competitive presidential primary in January, marking the first time in 50 years a sitting president must fight for his own re-nomination. Senior officials in the Socialist Party are already backing away from Hollande, with the speaker of the lower house questioning whether “he [Hollande] really wants to be a candidate,” in an interview with French24 news.
Amidst Hollande’s approval-ratings dive, National Front candidate Marine Le Pen is surging in popularity. Le Pen received nearly 30 percent approval in an Oct. 12 poll of French voters, which makes her a serious contender.
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