- cross-posted to:
- eu@piefed.social
- cross-posted to:
- eu@piefed.social
Emmanuel Macron has hit back at Donald Trump’s latest threats to impose tariffs on any country opposing his Greenland takeover, warning that “no amount of intimidation” will persuade European nations to change their course on Greenland.
He was echoed by the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, who warned the EU would not be “blackmailed” by the US president, who on Saturday announced 10% tariffs on eight European countries from 1 February, with a further 25% tariff from 1 June.
In a joint statement, EU leaders said “tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral”.
It is highly likely that the European parliament will halt ratification of last summer’s trade deal with the US after Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s party, the largest voting bloc in the institute, said they would have to pause the legal rubber stamping process.
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Something you should know about Macron: the more seriously he takes an issue, the less he does about it.
And also, sometimes he pretends to take an issue seriously so he can make the situation worse without appearing to be responsible.
Right now, he’s probably packing his golf clubs.
Until the captured by the oligarchy mainsream parties running as status quo lose to a far right running as reform backed by the us and russia. Then it changes, and it is inevitable without popular reform on the ballot.
How much does france unbowed have to suck that they never take it. Or their influencers that they keep with unpopular platforms?
Let’s keep all the champagne in EU
Why doesn’t Europe do psyops on Americans like Russia? Christ, as we’ve seen America is very easily manipulated.
The right has so many they would try to stop you, minimize you. Publicize it and make a big fuss.
You should though. But your own countries will fall under our leadership in the west, without a real popular reform you will fall as well to fake popular reform of a far right backed by the us, russia, billionaires.
The best kind of psyops is the kind nobody thinks is even happening. Trying to be subtle in today’s brash politics may not be the best plan though I guess, it takes too long.
We go straight at it. A thing i personally despise very much is this all secret behind the back stuff with misinformation and whatnot.
Personally i think we would do our enemies a favor if we punch their teeth in since the brain gets more oxygen that way and they may come to their senses.
Cringe keyboardwarrior i know but thats my opinion.
Coming from a country where im not even sure we have a secret service.(maybe its just that good 🧐)
It helps that Donald Trump is not intimidating.
I don’t know… I find it quite intimidating that there’s a bunch of power in the hands of a psychopath with dementia and emotional self-regulation abilities worse than the average toddler.
Not my own but I liked how this seems to be the logic operating between Trump and his peers:
“Tax the americans, until the europeans comply.”
It makes sense when you understand that this is class war. The working class is being choked in both the US and Europe all while fueling nationalism within each.
Seems to me you are making a major false equivalence there.
In what way is the working class being choked in EU?
Unlike USA EU countries have a right to unionize, we have actual democracies and EU also have livable minimum wages despite some EU countries being only a fourth as wealthy as USA.
Also nationalism in Europe is very different than in USA, as EU has 27 countries, it’s not like EU will suddenly become one maniac nationalist/fascist nation with a giant army that can oppress the entire EU population like can happen in USA.EU is not perfect, except when compared to USA or China, then it kind of is.
In what way is the working class being choked in EU?
The same neoliberals are in power in Europe, and the same redistribution of wealth from below to the top happens in Europe. All over Europe they tell us we have to work more, earn less, our social services are too expensive, and “what are you talking about, rich people should pay taxes, are you insane?”
If you truly believe the working class is not being choked in Europe you’ve got to open your eyes. They are just a bit more subtle about it over here.
All political options are captured by the ruling class, every cycle we lose rights, quality of life, buying power.
Everyone knows they are being screwed. Parties tell us it’s going great. Far right is the only reform option. They will win without popular reform.
You can tell us we have never had it better, but we can all see that is not the case. Figures may not lie, but liars do figure.
Denying the plutocratic rot to force worthless sold out politicians is dooming the entire west, and you guys are as delusional as american voters if you do not see that by now.
The worldwide class difference is a problem when the market is open to everyone, so investment grade assets like real estate are priced on a foreign billionaire level everywhere. Our local labour laws are pretty decent, and we have really good wage equality overall but the rest of you are dragging us down frankly. Since you mentioned them, China had the right idea to impose severe restrictions around that type of “investing” and we should probably follow their example to some degree. One way to fight absurd wealth accumulation is to make it impossible to buy anything with it.
but the rest of you are dragging us down
Where are you from? and who is “you”? If foreigners are buying your real estate nothing is simpler than not allowing foreigners to own real estate in your country. Failing to do that is not the fault of other countries.
China had the right idea to impose severe restrictions around that type of “investing”
China is not all bad, but it is a totalitarian regime, where people can be imprisoned just for expressing a political opinion.
That kind of oppression of the people and ideas makes China clearly worse than EU, where it is a protected right.The worst countries regarding making land unavailable to ordinary people are way poorer countries than USA and EU and are Asian countries, where land is part of a social construct, and your worth and ability for marriage is tied to how much land you own. Where not the foreigners but the local rich are pressuring out ordinary people.
I hear the working class in the EU is having troubles with inflation and housing.
But I don’t think Trump has had much influence on that honestly. Housing is getting super expensive for years and the prices just never stopped rising and inflation is largely a result of Putin’s war in the Ukraine.
Here in the UK it’s pretty fucked. I earn a fairly low wage, and I live in a van because housing is so expensive. I could just about afford to pay rent, but I couldn’t afford much else. The van thing isn’t ideal - I’m in my 50s, hot summers and cold winters are challenging - but this is the only way I can afford to be able to do stuff and even save a bit.
UK has lost about 7.5-10% of their economic potential due to Brexit. Incidentally exactly as I warned would happen during the campaign for the Brexit election, where I warned the UK economy could decline up to 1% per year compared to remaining. Turns out I was pretty much spot on. My guess is this has hit the lower paid workers harder than average, because that is generally the nature of such things, unless there is political will to prevent it. But in situations with tighter economy, such political will almost always evaporates.
For UK workers overall this is a self inflicted wound. But of course if you voted remain, this was inflicted upon you by your countrymen. UK is in a special situation, and can not be used as an example for the rest of Europe.
Hopefully we will see this effect decrease, as UK forms new agreements with EU, and the economy settles on a natural level for the new conditions.UK is not in EU.
Inflation is an aftermath of Covid, Covid was a major economic challenge everywhere, this was made worse in EU and prolonged because Russia tried to strong-arm EU by closing off the gas. Which meant that EU was forced to source this energy from elsewhere, increasing prices on warming for houses for many people. But people are still paid livable wages in EU unlike in USA. There is always struggle for workers to get their fair share, difference is that in EU this struggle is on a much more even playing field than it is in USA, and AFAIK anywhere else in the world.
There is no class war in either USA or EU, there isn’t in USA because Americans aren’t fighting for their rights.
And there isn’t in EU because workers did fight for it, and we have won the necessary rights that prevent us from getting choked.
There is of course always debate on how the money of society as a whole should be shared. And in EU workers actually have significant political power in that debate, where in USA they don’t.So apart from a livable wage, we have for instance free healthcare and education, something many Americans dream of.
Romania is among the poorer EU countries, but they have the highest home ownership in EU.
So at least I think I can say with good certainty that we don’t have an EU wide housing crisis.
With major infra structure variables like housing there will always “trouble” show me a country that is completely without problems regarding housing.In EU the situation today is certainly way better than it was back in the 70’s in most countries, where in USA it’s the exact opposite.
I don’t think you understand what “class war” means. (1) One class can be fighting it while the other class is not. See Americans for an example.
(2) There is no “end” to class war when the working class “gets a living wage”. The capitalist class will always chip away at your wage and social programs. They are doing that now in Europe.
You don’t understand what I was even referring to when talking about class conflict. Here is a test: do you think “class” is dependent on how much money you make? If the answer is “yes, a Doctor is clearly of a different class than a janitor” then you have no idea what I’m talking about.
The way you talk about it makes me think you are just misunderstanding what I was talking about at a fundamental level.
I’m talking about class in the Marxist sense.
Are you European?
Yes, I am European and a supporter of EU in for instance the way EU requires member states to observe human rights.
And also how EU protects democratic rights for all citizens of EU, which again is directly contrary to USA, that undermine democracy on the federal level.Ah. “No True Scot”, or “Appeal to Authority” ? Which?
No. I was literally just wondering to get a context for your comment. But based on your comment I’m gonna assume you’re not.
I responded to another one of your comments so ending replies here. I realized from your other comment that you have no idea what I meant when I referred to “class”
The best time to stand up to Trump was when he first started making threats to the EU. The second best time is now. It’s time to stand up and if Trump doesn’t TACO, we in the EU can start selling his treasuries and putting tarrifs on US cloud providers.
It is interesting that the pedophile defender says only he can defend Greenland but he is a lame duck president and won’t be there in 3 years. Could easily be dead by then too.
Far be it from me to defend a Trump in any way, but the American desire to control Greenland does pre-date his presidency by a good stretch and it will still be a fond wish of the Department of War after he is gone. Trump is in this one personally because he thinks it will be a jewel of his legacy to add territory to the country. And he is always up for confrontational harassment of Europe and brandishing his sword as CIC. But Greenland specifically was put on his agenda by others in security defense circles. There is a case for it, and that case isn’t old and tired, it’s getting stronger as ice melts.
Dude, there is a case in American history for doing genocide of natives too. What is your “defense” of Trump here? Like, I don’t disagree with you that American Imperialism is not unique to Trump - but you seem to be saying this makes it justified? Maybe I’m reading your comment wrong though.
If you think the fascist will roll over and allow a peaceful transfer of power in 3 years then you have not been paying attention.
Exactly, and it’s not just Trump, it’s the entire White house administration. J. D. Vance is just as bat shit crazy as Trump is, and Stephen Miller is even worse.
Even worse, they’re smarter than him.
FACT: TACO
Do whatever you want, France. Trump will chicken out. Nothing else is as for sure other than that.
TACO is for things that could hurt the stock market or the the profits of capital. It literally comes from Wall Street traders.
TACO is not for Trump being reckless and cruel. He bombed Iran, he bombed fishing boats, he kidnapped a leader of a sovereign country, he has built concentration camps and is sending his SS troops door to door.
You best hope enough wealthy capitalist convince him not to invade Greenland. Because that’s the only reason he won’t. Don’t expect fascist to not take easy “wins” of cruelty to show power when they can.
Fascist only back down when their capitalist owners tell them to OR when there is a chance they could be resisted and seen as weak.
It started on Wall Street, but they simply picked up on the trend because it’s an industry of people looking at trends and patterns all day to place bets.
He chickens out on all sorts of policy things when he doesn’t delegate it to ghouls that feed on the cruelty. He keeps acting like he’s going to be tough on the EU, and then folds.
However, to your point, wealthy capitalists are the ones that convinced him to invade in the first place. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinadilicosa/2026/01/09/these-billionaires-bet-big-on-greenland-after-trump-took-interest/
And IIRC one of those Peter Thiel Network State charter city crypto fiefdoms as well was sniffing around Greenland.
I don’t know,
hethey seem to be more willing to escalate on treaty allies than anyone else.A bully always beats on his friends before ever considering a real challenger.
Be passingly humorous if ww3 was started of that
I think the only response to Trump’s threat is a demand that he explain himself in order to allow trade to resume.
Why bother? He’d only talk about the new ballroom being built at the Whitehouse amyways.
shouldn’t there be an easy fix to this madness? just give trump a bright shiny trophy and tell him he earned it all by himself, like a big boy
Bullets are shiny…
Ah, the Jozef Gabčík Solution.
Okay but what if it stops just being intimidation
at this point i don’t believe any of the politics going on. world wide.
I honestly don’t see why the EU and UK don’t cut off the USA entirely in response. Cancel all flights, cancel all visas. Cut the internet connection, allow no cargo to dock or undock, block all financial transactions. How hard can it be, if they want to be a pariah fine, it’s no great loss.
