French President Francois Hollande, who once said Donald Trump made him want to retch, warned Wednesday that the Republican billionaire’s stunning victory in the US election “opens a period of uncertainty.”
In a televised address, Hollande underlined that the United States was a key partner for business, for solving wars in the Middle East and tackling global warming — something Trump has dismissed as a hoax.
“This American election opens a period of uncertainty,” he said in a statement that offered only brief congratulations to the Republican billionaire.
As well as France keeping up its global role, “this context calls for a united Europe, capable of making itself heard and of promoting policies wherever its interests or its values are challenged,” he said.
Hollande, who has disastrous approval ratings ahead of France’s presidential election next year, has been an outspoken critic of Trump and in October had predicted a victory for Hillary Clinton.
In the wake of a feud between the incoming US president and the Muslim parents of a slain US soldier in August, the Socialist French president told journalists that “his excesses make you want to retch”.
Trump has raised hackles in France after saying attacks in Paris last year that left 130 people dead might have been avoided if the country relaxed its gun laws.
He has also referred to “vicious” no-go zones in Paris and said French people arriving in the United States could face security vetting because of fears about extremists.
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