France sent a support message to Harvard and promises “a safe place” for US international students

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday that his country supports students and staff at Harvard, after the attempt of US President Donald Trump to ban foreign students at the prestigious American University, AFP reports.

“We are with the universities that are facing the threat of government control, restrictions on their financing, constraints on their study programs or research projects,” said Jean-Noel Barrot during a speech at the Business HEC in Paris.

“We are with the Harvard teachers, Harvard students, who are currently facing unjustified stress and anxiety,” added the head of French diplomacy, in English.

“If the US courts maintain the decisions to ban the access of international students, France will provide a safe place to complete its studies,” continued Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Universities and research units in the United States have been undergoing increasing political and financial pressures under Trump's leadership, being threatened with massive federal funding discounts.

Harvard was at the center of the campaign launched by Donald Trump against the top American universities, after challenging calls to obey government supervision. The US leader accuses the educational institutions of propagating a “woke” ideology, criticizing them in particular for their policies to promote diversity and because they allowed the proliferation of demonstrations against the war, which they associate with anti-Semitism.

Last week, an American court temporarily suspended the latest US President from preventing foreign students from registering for Harvard.

A proclamation of the White House, issued the day before, was to prohibit the entry into the country of most of the new international students from Harvard and mentioned that existing foreign students risk their visas.

The US government has already reduced about $ 3.2 billion from the federal grants and contracts that Harvard enjoys and has committed to exclude the institution from any future federal funding.

France and the European Union are trying to encourage dissatisfied researchers to move from the United States to Europe.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said last month that the EU will launch a new package of incentives worth 500 million euros to make the 27 nations block “a magnet for researchers”.

French President Emmanuel Macron revealed in April plans for a financing program that would help national universities and other research bodies to cover the costs of bringing foreign scientists to the country.