has managed to irritate its Western partners with its attempt to take over, “by hook or by crook.” While blocs like the European Union still move like a sloth, without unity and fearful of reprisals, there are individual countries that are already moving: they are deploying soldiers on the Arctic island and carrying out exercises to guarantee assistance to Denmark, the kingdom on which this independent territory depends.
Within the framework of the Davos Forum, the great annual snow meeting of world leaders, several voices have been raised that have made it clear to the president of the United States that there are limits, beyond his own “morality”, as he boasted in a recent interview in the . The most notable, that of the Prime Minister of Canada, .
In his speech, he assured that the world is suffering “a rupture” and not “a transition”, in which “the great powers” are using “economic integration as a weapon.” “You cannot live with the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of subordination,” Carney said.
The Canadian Prime Minister used the essay by Czech author and former President of the Czech Republic, , to illustrate the current situation in which it seems that “the rules-based world order is fading”, “the powerful can do what they want and the weak must suffer.” The messages to Washington were clear, beyond the classic ones to Beijing or Moscow.
The clearest allusion, even without citing its southern neighbor, was when he referred to the hegemony of the strong, often presented as inevitable. “There is a tendency to appease, to avoid problems. It is a mistake,” he warned. Now that the will to subjugate is evident, and that integration itself is turned into a weapon to subjugate, the Prime Minister of Canada argues that we must react cooperatively. Seeking strategic autonomy is normal.
“There is a tendency to appease, to avoid problems. It is a mistake”
“If the law does not protect you, you have to provide yourself with protection (…) in addition to the strength of values, you have to look at the value of strength.” But that force, that autonomy, can only be truly effective through cooperation,” he understands. It should be normal but it sounds revolutionary in times when Washington acts against international law and tries to and disdains the role of the UN, the threads that have kept the world as we know it in recent decades. And not in search of a greater good, but a particular good of its own. Colonialism, no, thank you.
Macron’s raised finger
And then there is the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who said this Tuesday that “we must not be impressed” and that “we must remain calm” in the face of the threats from the president of the United States and what appears to be the collapse of the multilateral system that has allowed a certain order to be maintained in the world since the .
“We must be calm, we must stick to our principles, we must not lower our eyes, we must not give in to the law of the strongest or a technique of intimidation,” he declared upon leaving the auditorium where moments before he had addressed the leaders participating in the Forum.
In a hurried walk through the corridors of the Congress Center where this leaders’ summit is being held, pursued by dozens of journalists, Macron pointed out that “we must defend our interests, those of France and the Europeans, and also our principles and peace.”
Asked if Trump can still be considered “an ally” when he makes threats against Europe every day, Macron said: “It is up to him to give the answer, although in fact it is not behavior that corresponds to that qualification.” The French president recognized that NATO “is a weakened entity if we are not coherent.”
“We prefer respect to bullies”
Later, before the audience, he gave the best headline: “We prefer respect to bullies,” Macron said. “And we prefer the rule of law to brutality.” His speech came after Trump threatened huge tariffs on French wine and champagne (200% more) and, a rare breach of diplomatic discretion.
Trump had already promised on Saturday to implement a wave of escalating tariffs starting February 1 on several European allies, including France, until the United States is allowed to acquire Greenland, a move that key EU states denounced as blackmail.
Washington’s “incessant accumulation” of new tariffs is “fundamentally unacceptable,” Macron declared in Davos, “even more so when they are used as a lever against territorial sovereignty.”
“A friend”
Softer was the president of the European Commission, who promised a “firm, united and proportionate” response to Trumpist threats and blackmail and urged Europe “to accelerate the push to be independent.” “We consider the people of the United States not only as allies, but as friends. And dragging ourselves into a dangerous downward spiral would only help the adversaries that we are both so committed to keeping out of our strategic landscape. Our response will be firm, united and proportional,” Von der Leyen said.
He recalled the trade agreement reached by Washington and Brussels last July and stressed that “both in politics and in business, an agreement is an agreement.”
The president of the Commission, however, extended her hand to the US by assuring that Europe is “fully committed and shares the objectives of the United States” in terms of security in the Arctic, which can only be achieved “jointly.”
Along the same lines of advocating cooperation while demonstrating firmness, Macron called for calm, but said that Europeans should not hesitate to apply the anti-coercion mechanism when they are not respected and “not passively accept the law of the strongest.”
This mechanism, which has not yet been released, dates back to the end of 2023 and would open the door for the EU to apply a wide range of sanctions against Washington, including the imposition of customs tariffs on products from that country, as well as restrictions on access to European public tenders.
France faces, along with Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, tariffs of up to 25% for sending soldiers to Greenland, and 200% on French wines and champagnes due to the French president’s refusal to enter the Gaza Peace Board designed by the Republican.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Air Force One to depart for Washington, at Palm Beach International Airport (Florida), on January 19, 2026.
Be careful, warn the US
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Scott Bessent, warned the European Union this Monday against a possible imposition of tariffs, as is being debated. “I think it would be very foolish,” Bessent told reporters also in Davos, where he explained that Trump wants to control this autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic because he considers it a “strategic asset.” “We are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone,” he added.
When asked about Trump’s message to Norway’s prime minister, in which he seemed to link his pressure on Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Bessent responded: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway.”
“I think it’s complete nonsense that the president is going to do this for him,” he added.
Waiting for Trump
Rising tensions over Greenland and threats of a deepening trade war between the United States and Europe rattled global investors on Tuesday, as stocks on Wall Street fell.
Trump prides himself on increasing pressure to try to negotiate from a position of strength. He was leaving Washington on Tuesday, the anniversary of his inauguration, heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a forum that offers him the opportunity to calm tensions as quickly as it stoked them.
But European leaders – digging in and vowing to defend Denmark and its control over semi-autonomous Greenland – may be trying just as hard to meet an extraordinary moment with a show of steely determination. That could hurt Trump’s chances of finding a quick solution to the crisis. The leader of Greenland insisted on respect for its territorial integrity and stated that international law “is not a game.”
Trump made a rare appearance in the White House press briefing room and spoke at length as stocks fell. Asked how far he would be willing to go to acquire Greenland, Trump simply said: “They’ll find out.” At one point, he also mistakenly referred to Greenland as Iceland.
Still, the president predicted that a deal could be in the offing. “I think we will reach an agreement that will please both NATO and us,” he said, without giving further details.
Trump said he had been encouraged by NATO’s increased military spending, but he also disparaged the alliance, saying other members might not protect Washington’s interests. The president suggested that NATO members hope the United States will bail them out, but “I really doubt they will help us.”
