{"id":295635,"date":"2026-01-21T10:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/295635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:36:15","slug":"macron-accuses-us-of-trying-to-subordinate-europe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/295635\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron accuses US of trying to \u2018subordinate\u2019 Europe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

French president Emmanuel Macron<\/a> openly accused the US of trying to \u201csubordinate\u201d Europe as the diplomatic fallout from Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> plans to annex Greenland <\/a>deepened on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot accept a world where the law of strongest holds sway,\u201d Mr Macron told the World Economic Forum (WEF)<\/a> in Davos.<\/p>\n

Europe prefers \u201crespect over bullies\u201d and respect for the rule of law over brutality, the French leader said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Keith Duggan: This might be Donald Trump\u2019s last year as the only relevant player on stageOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Amid simmering transatlantic tensions over US plans to seize the Artic island and ahead of Mr Trump\u2019s attendance at the Davos summit on Wednesday, Mr Macron warned that the world was being engulfed by \u201cinstability\u201d and a \u201dnew colonial approach\u201d that would have both economic and military consequences.<\/p>\n

He noted there were more than 60 wars in 2024, even though \u201cI understand some of them were fixed\u201d, an apparent jibe at Trump\u2019s claim to have resolved several conflicts. <\/p>\n

Mr Macron, wearing aviator sunglasses because of an eye complaint, said Europe \u201cshould not hesitate\u201d to deploy its anti-coercion trade mechanism if the US follows through on tariff threats linked to Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anti-coercion mechanism is a powerful instrument, and we should not hesitate to deploy it in today\u2019s tough environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump earlier this week said his government would impose 10 per cent tariffs on goods on eight European states from next month, rising to 25 per cent in June, unless there was a deal for \u201cthe complete and total purchase of Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using tariffs as leverage to gain territorial sovereignty is \u201cfundamentally unacceptable,\u201d Macron told the forum.<\/p>\n

He said he had no plans to meet Mr Trump at Davos despite speculation that they would hold a sidebar. <\/p>\n

Mr Macron\u2019s Davos address came after Mr Trump posted messages on his Truth Social platform, purporting to be from Mr Macron, indicating the French president confusion over the US\u2019s Greenland policy and with Mr Macron offering to hold a crisis G7 meeting on the issue in Paris on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Also speaking at Davos, Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said what many Europeans believe, that Europe must make it clear to the US that \u201cenough is enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you indulge him, the more brazen he becomes,\u201d Mr De Wever said. <\/p>\n

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney delivered one of the more powerful defences of multilateralism albeit while warning that the old US-led international order was over and that middle powers like Canada needed to pivot to avoid becoming victims of \u201ccoercion\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Canada stood with Denmark and Greenland in their sovereignty battle with Washington.<\/p>\n

Earlier, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen seemed to suggest that Trump\u2019s latest tariff threat meant the US was reneging on the trade deal agreed between the EU and Washington in July.<\/p>\n

She warned Europe\u2019s response would be \u201cunflinching\u201d while suggesting Mr Trump\u2019s actions were \u201cplunging us into a dangerous downward spiral\u201d that \u201cwould only aid\u201d adversaries of both Europe and the US.<\/p>\n

Davos 2026 has been entirely overshadowed by what many described as Mr Trump\u2019s \u201ccoercive tactics\u201d over Greenland.<\/p>\n

He is scheduled to make his first appearance at the summit in six years on Wednesday amid concern that Europe\u2019s policy of appeasement has backfired.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump will lead the US\u2019s largest-ever Davos delegation comprising US secretary of state Marco Rubio; US treasury secretary Scott Bessent; US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Washington\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff.<\/p>\n

Speaking from Davos, Mr Bessent cautioned European countries not to retaliate against US tariffs over Greenland.<\/p>\n

Asked about the uncertainty the tit-for-tat threats of further tariffs were causing companies, Mr Bessent said: \u201cI would say this is the same kind of hysteria that we heard on April 2nd. There was a panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French president Emmanuel Macron openly accused the US of trying to \u201csubordinate\u201d Europe as the diplomatic fallout from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,140613,356,6586,2219,13,14,17768,6,11,12,15,16,6587,5,7,8,384,4894,65,78553,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-295635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-davos","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-greenland","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-marco-rubio","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","28":"tag-world","29":"tag-world-economic-forum","30":"tag-world-news","31":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115932652186317577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}