Europe must stop wanting to “appease” and “resist” Donald Trump, advises the head of Amnesty International

Call for resistance. Europe must stop wanting to “appease” American President Donald Trump and instead resist him, as well as other “tyrants” determined to destroy the order based on rules put in place after the Second World War, the head of Amnesty International advised on Monday.

“We need a lot more resistance,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, in the Swiss Alps.

According to her, “Europe’s credibility is at stake”. His recommendations come after US President Donald Trump reaffirmed on Sunday that the United States would seize Greenland “one way or another”.

The Americans showed no sign of appeasement towards the Europeans on Monday, warning them that it “would be very ill advised” to respond to threats of customs surcharges brandished by Donald Trump as long as Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, is not in the hands of the United States.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the same day that he wanted to “avoid a customs escalation” and said he wanted to meet Donald Trump on Wednesday in Davos.

Knowing how to “say no”

Agnès Callamard urged governments to show more “courage” and to know how to “say no”: “Let them stop believing that we can negotiate with tyrants, let them stop thinking that we can accept the rules of predators without becoming their victim ourselves. This has to stop.”

“We are going through a phase of destruction of the rules-based order,” she denounced, lamenting that there are global and regional “superpowers” ​​who seem “determined to destroy what was established” after the Second World War.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House a year ago, he has made “a whole series of decisions that have led to the collapse of many rules in the world”, while Russia destroyed the system by “aggressing Ukraine”, she said.

In recent months, European powers have maneuvered a fine line over Ukraine, relying on Washington to try to help resolve the conflict while resisting terms too favorable to Moscow.

The post-war order “is also being destroyed by Israel, which totally ignored international law with the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza,” Ms. Callamard added.