Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Thursday called on Europe to maintain calm in connection with the “controversial” statements of the US President-elect Donald Trump. TASR reports this according to a report by the AFP agency.
“One of the lessons from Donald Trump’s first term is that you shouldn’t react to everything,” said the Belgian prime minister. “A lot of things are started just to start a debate that leads nowhere,” De Croo pointed out.
The future US president caused a stir on Tuesday when he did not rule out military pressure to acquire the Panama Canal and Greenland, which has been part of Denmark for 600 years, during a press conference.
De Croo: We should not react to every provocation
“We have to keep our cool,” De Croo told Belgian MPs. “We shouldn’t react to every provocation, we would do it every day,” he continued. According to AFP, the Belgian prime minister was more emphatic when it came to the alleged interference of American businessman and Trump ally Elon Musk in European politics.
The Belga agency states that the American billionaire uses his social network X to present his political preferences. For example, he called on Germans to vote for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is described as a far-right or right-wing extremist party, in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
De Croo pointed out that Europe is constantly under attack. According to his statement, Russia has been interfering in Western democracies for some time, and now “rich and powerful people” are joining it. The Belgian Prime Minister thinks that Belgium and Europe should not tolerate this.
“The free organization of elections is the basis for our political and social system. It must be done without the interference of countries or powerful people,” declared De Croo, calling on the European Commission (EC) to enforce regulation of online disinformation.
“We have to trust our citizens, the majority of the citizens of our countries see the difference between what is information and what is disinformation,” said the Belgian prime minister.
The Belga agency reminds that the EC started an investigation into the X network in December 2023. In July, it accused the network of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA). According to the EC, the platform misleads users with blue pipes for unverified accounts, does not have a suitable advertisement database and does not provide access to public data.
