France’s lame duck, globalist President Emmanuel Macron has issue a ‘sharp warning’ over Washington’s renewed push to bring Greenland under US control, claiming the idea a direct threat to European sovereignty.
Remarks from Macron, widely despised in France and hardly taken seriously abroad, reflect growing unease in Europe over how utterly dependent the continent has become on American military power—and how little leverage it has when Europe’s interests diverge from US interests.
Macron told his cabinet that any violation of a European ally’s sovereignty would trigger consequences without precedent. France, he said, would stand in full solidarity with Denmark, even as the episode exposes Europe’s strategic weakness.
The warning came in response to President Donald Trump’s insistence that US control of Greenland is “vital” to American national security. Trump has framed the Arctic island as essential to his planned Golden Dome missile defense system.
According to Trump, Greenland’s location is indispensable to countering Russia and China in the Arctic. He has argued that NATO itself would be stronger if the island were directly under US authority rather than Danish sovereignty.
That argument has unsettled European capitals, not least because it lays bare an uncomfortable truth. When Europe relies on Washington for defense, Washington sets the terms.
Macron’s language was unusually blunt, suggesting, perhaps, that Paris sees this as more than diplomatic theater. Critics, of which there is no shortage, however, note that France and the EU lack credible military autonomy to back up their rhetoric.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, echoed Macron’s concerns, with its president emphasizing that Greenland has a close relationship with the EU. Brussels insisted that Greenlanders can count on European support, though what that support entails remains unclear.