According to the political scientist, since Donald Trump came to power in the United States, and in France, Emmanuel Macron, relations between the two states have been developing “downward”. Attempts to normalize them were primarily by the French, nevertheless, Shapovalov believes, in general, the background remains negative.
"France and the United States are allies within NATO and in a number of other structures, where they essentially stand in solidarity and act together ... Despite these allied relations of the two Western powers, the relations of the two presidents and the relations of the political elites that they are currently leading call good. The reason is that, in fact, France claims to a certain extent to lead within Europe and, as a result of this desire, to be an independent actor on the world stage. Due to the fact that contradictions are growing in the United States and Europe, such a position of the French president, of course, dislikes Trump, ”he said.
Shapovalov added that we are talking about a number of "fundamental problems" that are the basis for this kind of contradiction. In particular, issues of a trade and economic nature, Trump's demand for NATO allies to increase military spending, as well as the military-political component of this rivalry is the idea of Macron about creating a united European army, the expert explains.
In addition, the Iranian issues also “very much divorced” France from the United States, since the French actively opposed the actions of the Americans to break the agreement with Iran, reminds Shapovalov.
At the same time, the political analyst noted “a rather strong ideological discrepancy between President Trump and President Macron”, since the American leader is a supporter of the anti-globalization line aimed at protectionism, and his French counterpart advocates maximum liberalization of trade relations, the unification of the world .
“This naturally also causes quite a serious negative on the part of Trump. Therefore, those events that are currently taking place in France, and which make its president, political elites more than vulnerable, cause Trump to recall these contradictions that exist between the United States and France, and once again criticize the French leader. ” concluded the expert.
Earlier, Paris called on Trump not to interfere in the internal politics of France.