The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, on Thursday 26 September, in his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, hit back at the US President, Donald Trump, without naming him.
"I do not agree" with the "words spoken here two days ago, suggesting an imminent conflict between patriotism and globalism", he explained, describing this speech as "false and dangerous even if it has many followers and powerful propagators".
On Tuesday, in his speech to the UN, the US President argued that the future did not belong to globalists, but to patriots. "The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations that protect their citizens, respect their neighbours and honour the differences that make each country special and unique", he said.
"The very idea of the United Nations, just like that of the European Union, is de facto a heroic attempt to overcome this such thinking", Tusk said. "The patriotism of the 21st century must also have a global dimension if it is not to become, as has many times been the case, a common national egoism. The history of our nations shows how easy it is to transform the love of one’s homeland into a hatred towards one's neighbours. How easy it is to transform the pride for one’s own culture into a contempt for the culture of strangers. How easy it is to use the slogans of one's own sovereignty against the sovereignty of others", he added.
The President of the EU Council also attacked the fake news that Mr Trump denounces daily on Twitter, arguing that "to protect the truth, it is not enough to accuse others of promoting fake news". "Frankly, it would be enough to simply stop lying. Today, too many politicians use lies as a permanent method to maintain power", he said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)