The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, urged the European Commission on Wednesday January 8 to act with “the greatest firmness” against interference, notably that of Elon Musk, in the European public debate, failing which France could take measures itself.
While the boss of the social network “to seize much more vigorously the tools [qui] his [ont été] given to deter these behaviors”. Asked whether “banishment” of X could intervene in Europe, as in Brazil, where the network was suspended for forty days, Mr. Barrot replied: “It’s provided for in our laws. »
“Either the European Commission applies with the greatest firmness the laws that we have given ourselves to protect our public space, or it does not and then it will have to agree to return to the Member States of the EU, to return to France, the capacity to do so”Mr. Barrot said. “We need to wake up”he judged.
“Law of the strongest”
Elon Musk has intervened with a bang for several weeks in European political life. On and against the British Prime Minister, Labor Keir Starmer. During the conference of ambassadors on Monday in Paris, Emmanuel Macron accused Mr. Musk of supporting a “reactionary international”.
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The French foreign minister was also questioned about threats from American president-elect Donald Trump towards Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland is “a territory of the European Union. There is no question of the EU letting any other nation in the world attack its sovereign borders.”Mr. Barrot said. “If you ask me if I think the United States will invade Greenland, the answer is no. Have we entered an era which sees the return of the law of the strongest? The answer is yes”he estimated.
Donald Trump reiterated on Tuesday his ambitions to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland, by force if necessary. The US president-elect urged Denmark to ” give up “ to its autonomous territory rich in resources, attracting a firm response from the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, who recalled that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders”.
“The time for naivety is over”
Located in the Arctic Ocean, the second largest island in the world after Australia (2.2 million square kilometers), populated by approximately 55,000 inhabitants, has its flag, its language, its culture and its institutions. It is endowed with gigantic mining resources. With mainland Denmark and the Faroe Islands, Greenland has formed the Unity of the Kingdom of Denmark, without being part of the European Union, since 1985.
Echoing the words of Minister Barrot, the president of the European Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, wrote on “Trump’s statements on Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal should alert us. For Europe the time for naivety is over (…). Let us move faster to ensure our power, our security and our defense.”
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