EU leaders vow 'firm' response to Trump

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Yahoo News:

Paris (AFP) - The EU's 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 Trump -- who has made clear he thinks other EU countries will leave the bloc -- called Britain's 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 Trump's "protectionist" measures could "destabilise economies not just in Europe but the economies of the main countries of the world".

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Eurocrats shake their fists at Trump.