The French prime minister has said the country must stand firm in the face of figures such as Elon Musk, who represents a “new world disorder”, reports The Guardian.
In his first policy speech to parliament on Tuesday, François Bayrou, a veteran centrist, said there was “a new world disorder, that threatens all equilibrium and all rules of defence. There are a certain number of people who embody this without complex, such as Elon Musk.”
The tech billionaire, a close ally of the US president-elect, Donald Trump, is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.
Bayrou cited what he called Trump’s “threats to annex sovereign territories, Greenland, the Panama canal, and even Canada”. He said it was for France to look at this “face on” and show such global powers “who we are”. France must be able to “express our determination”, he said.
On the domestic front, Bayrou, who became France’s fourth prime minister in a year when he took office a month ago, faces a challenge to get agreement on a long-overdue budget plan for 2025 and resolve bitter disputes over a 2023 pension reform.
Like his predecessor, the rightwing Michel Barnier, who lasted just three months before being brought down in a no-confidence vote, Bayrou lacks a majority in the national assembly. He could face a similar fate if he fails to win at least tacit backing from enough opposition MPs.