French Prime Minister François Bayrou has strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s harsh treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, describing it as a shocking display of "brutality" designed to humiliate Zelensky and coerce him into acquiescing to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou in parliament later on Monday broke from the more diplomatic tone traditionally favored by French President Emmanuel Macron, with a stinging critique of the US and its handling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bayrou saluted the fact that Zelensky did not "fold" to US pressure, describing Trump and Vance's attempted takedown of the Ukrainian leader as "a shocking scene, marked by brutality and a desire to humiliate.
"All this was summed up in one phrase before the planet’s cameras: ‘Either you find a deal with Putin or we will abandon you,’" Bayrou said, apparently referring to Trump’s comments in the Oval Office. Trump’s actual words to Zelensky were "you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out."
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He said the scene had left two victims: "the security of Ukraine" and "a certain idea of the alliance" between the United States and Europe.
The Oval Office scene "compromised another fundamental alliance: the one that the United States had with themselves, their history, and with a certain ideal of defending the law, of defending the weak against the forces of tyranny."
Bayrou added that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its diplomatic fallout have left Europe in grave peril.
He spoke of "an historic situation that in our eyes is the most serious, the most destabilised, the most dangerous of all those that our country and our continent have experienced since the end of World War II."
"It is up to us Europeans to guarantee the security and defence of Europe," he said recently at a debate on Ukraine and European security.
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(with news agencies)
