Francois Hollande launches scathing attack on Donald Trump and urges Democrats to rally around Hillary Clinton

The French leader made a series of surprisingly outspoken comments about the Republican candidate

France's President Francois Hollande listens to a question during a morning radio show on France's Europe 1 station in Paris, France, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Miguel Medina (Miguel Medina/Reuters)

The president of France has launched a scathing attack on Republican candidate Donald Trump, saying relations between the US and Europe would be complicated if the New York tycoon wins the White House.

In comments that were surprisingly outspoken for a sitting head of state about another country’s political candidate, François Hollande urged Democrats to work to ensure the victory of Hillary Clinton. He said those who believed it was impossible for Mr Trump to win, were the same people who failed to predict the outcome of Britain’s referendum on EU membership.

“Those who claim that Donald Trump cannot be the next president of the United States are the same who claimed that Brexit would never be voted in,” Mr Hollande said in an interview with the French newspaper Les Échos.


 Donald Trump has stirred controversy with many of his comments 
 (Reuters)

Mr Hollande, a socialist, likened Mr Trump’s controversial policies to the fear-mongering tactics of far-right movements in the EU.

“His slogans are not that different from [those of] the far right in Europe and in France: fear of the wave of immigration, stigmatisation of Islam, questioning of representative democracy,” he said.

Mr Hollande also accused Mr Trump of hypocrisy denouncing elites and said that the 70-year-old was the “most obvious incarnation” of those very elites. And he clearly voiced his support for Mr Trump’s Democratic rival, Ms Clinton. Asked if he believed a Trump presidency would be “dangerous”, he answered in the affirmative.

“The best thing that Democrats can do is to get Hillary Clinton elected,” he said.

“His election would complicate relations between Europe and the United States. But let’s look beyond this scenario and become aware of a deep and lasting trend in the US - Americans no longer [intends] to be the policemen of the world.

“Europeans should understand and plan accordingly for their defence. For their economies. For their commercial policy. And for the protection of their cultural industries.”

(AP)

A number of commentators in the US and Europe have likened Mr Trump’s populist rhetoric to some of what appeared in the Leave campaign in the UK. Mr Trump, who flew to Scotland the day after the referendum, was among those predicting that what happened in the UK would be echoed in the US this November. He said the British people had “taken back their country”.

“They’re angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over, nobody even knows who they are,” he said, at a ceremony to mark the reopening of a golf resort he owns on Scotland’s west coast. “They’re angry about many, many things.”

The latest polls show Ms Clinton and Mr Trump close in the presidential race. Real Clear Politics suggests most of the polls put Ms Clinton four points ahead of him.