US President Donald Trump’s plans to take over Gaza and Greenland are examples of the “extreme strategic uncertainty” the world is living in, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with The Financial Times on Friday morning.
Macron stated that Trump’s proposal to relocate the population of Gaza to neighboring Arab countries and take over the land would be “extremely dangerous.”
“For me, the solution is not a real estate solution. It is a political solution,” he said.
Trump’s Gaza plan, along with Trump’s plan to annex Greenland – which Macron insisted should be addressed by NATO – called for a “radical rethink” of how the EU should operate.
“It is an electroshock. We need asymmetric shocks; we need external shocks. It is an exogenous shock for Europeans,” he said.
Europe must 'muscle up'
Europeans would feel safer if they believed they could live in a state of “strategic dependency,” he added.
The interview took place shortly after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to hold peace talks regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, and Macron expressed the need for Europe to “muscle up” on matters of defense and economy.
Macron described Trump’s return to Washington as the “jolt” that could push the European Union to “invest in its own defense, economic and technological revival.”
“This is Europe’s moment to accelerate and execute,” he said, “It has no choice. It is running out of road.”