French President Francois Hollande has broken tradition and come out in support of Hillary Clinton, warning that Donald Trump could damage the United States’ relationship with the European Union.
“The best thing the Democrats can do is to get Hillary Clinton elected,” Hollande told French newspaper Les Echos in an interview published Thursday, according to Bloomberg News.
He said that Trump “would complicate relations between Europe and the U.S.”
Hollande’s comments are unusual given that foreign leaders typically refrain form weighing in on foreign allies’ elections.
The French president said that Trump’s rhetoric is similar to that of the far right in Europe, specifically “fear of waves of immigrants, the stigmatization of Islam, the undermining of representative democracy and the denunciation of elites,” according to Bloomberg News.
And when asked by Les Echos if Trump would be “dangerous” as president, Hollande said “yes,” according to Newsweek.
Hollande also warned that Trump has a chance of winning the presidency, citing Great Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
“Those who say that Donald Trump could not possibly become the next president of the United States are the same ones who thought that Brexit would never be voted in,” he told Les Echos, according to Newsweek.
