French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Monday slammed a weekend trade deal between the United States and the European Union as a “dark day” and tantamount to “submission,” as other politicians poured vitriol on the deal.
“It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resorts to submission,” said Bayrou in a post on X of the accord thrashed out Sunday.
US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck the deal, which fixed a baseline tariff of 15 per cent on EU exports to the US.
French President Emmanuel Macron did not immediately react Monday to the high-stakes agreement, which drew wider criticism across much of the French political spectrum
Stock markets rose in Europe and Asia on hopes the agreement can avert a potentially damaging trade war.
But many French politicians were not convinced.
“Ursula von der Leyen accepted yesterday the commercial surrender of Europe, to the detriment of our exporters, farmers, and industrialists,” Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally, wrote on X.
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The day before, Bardella’s party colleague and three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen had criticised the deal as “a political, economic and moral fiasco.”
“This is a defeat for the European Commission, which failed to create the power dynamics needed properly to defend European interests,” said Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a Macron ally in parliament and president of the National Assembly’s European Affairs Committee.
Anglade blasted what he said was a “signal of weakness” sent “to our competitors, and we must fight to reverse the situation.”
A Bayrou ally in his Democratic Movement, lawmaker Philippe Latombe, said on X he “deeply regrets” a deal which “while it certainly avoids a trade war, comes at the cost of culpable subservience, a mortgage on our future, and the sacrifice of entire sectors of our sovereignty. It’s a bad deal, except for Trump.”
On Sunday, the Socialist Party said the EU appeared cast as a US “vassal” while far-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said France’s choice was one of “non-submission to the (US) Empire and non-alignment.”
The French finance ministry told AFP Finance Minister Eric Lombard and Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot would Wednesday discuss “consequences” of the deal with major French economic players.
AFP
