Theresa may be silent on Trump but François Hollande is happy to attack

Last Updated: February 3, 2017By

She made her bed with Donald Trump last week, and now it seems Theresa May is going to have to be happy to lie in it – while fellow EU leaders pour scorn on him all around her.

It would have been very obviously hypocritical of Mrs May to say anything against Herr Drumpf herself, and the world’s press would have picked up on that, so she did an uncharacteristically diplomatic thing, and kept her mouth shut for a change.

The Lithuanian president’s comment must have come as a particularly sharp barb. Only a week after Mrs May, in undue haste, travelled to the States to lavish praise on the new predator President, she was told her services as a “bridge” between that country and the EU would not be necessary as “we communicate with the Americans on Twitter”.

François Hollande has led a series of damning attacks on Donald Trump by EU leaders arriving at a summit in Malta to discuss the future of the union.

The French president described recent comments by the US president as unacceptable and warned there would be no future for Europe’s relations with the US “if this future isn’t defined in common”.

Hollande was scornful of Trump’s first days in the Oval office, and warned him to stay out of the EU’s internal affairs. “It cannot be accepted that there is, through a certain number of statements by the president of the United States, pressure on what Europe ought to be or what it should not be,” he said.

“Those who want to forge bilateral ties with the US are of course well understood by the public.

“But they must understand that there is no future with Trump if it is not a common position. What matters is solidarity at the EU level. We must not imagine some sort of external protection. It exists through the Atlantic alliance, but it cannot be the only possible route, because who knows what the US president really wants, particularly in relation to the Atlantic alliance and burden-sharing?

“We in France have a defence policy. We fear nothing … We must have a European conception of our future. If not, there will be – in my opinion – no Europe and not necessarily any way for each of the countries to be able to exert an influence in the world.”

The Austrian chancellor, Christian Kern, said Trump’s ban on travellers from some Muslim-majority countries was “highly problematic”.

Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Lithuanian president, offered a withering verdict on the recent meeting between Trump and Theresa May [after which Mrs May offered to be a “bridge” between the US and the EU]. “I don’t think there is a necessity for a bridge. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter,” she said.

The British prime minister, with the UK’s recently appointed permanent representative to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, by her side, was one of the few leaders not to comment as she entered through the door of the Grand Masters Palace, where the 28 member states are holding talks.

Source: François Hollande leads attacks on Donald Trump at EU summit | World news | The Guardian

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3 Comments

  1. NMac February 3, 2017 at 3:31 pm - Reply

    She has shown herself up for what she is, a political featherweight, with not a shred of dignity or humanity. The arch-Tory Kenneth Clark summed her up quite well during the recent debate in Parliament – and he’s on her side.

  2. Barry Davies February 3, 2017 at 7:11 pm - Reply

    Seems like she made a good move because the eu has realised that she is their best opportunity to actually be able to deal with the US. They suddenly are not shunning her anymore.

    • Mike Sivier February 4, 2017 at 2:24 am - Reply

      Lithuania is. Lithuania will communicate with the States via Twitter.
      As for the rest – what on Earth makes you think they have warmed to Mrs Mayfly?

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