JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images(BERLIN) — As President Trump’s campaign promise of a border wall with Mexico moves closer to reality, Berlin’s mayor has issued a warning for the new U.S. president.
“We Berliners know best how much suffering was caused by the division of an entire continent with barbed wire and concrete,” Michael Mueller said in a statement according to Deutsche Welle. “Berlin, the city of a divided Europe, the city of a free Europe, cannot stay silent when a country plans to erect a new wall.”
The German capital was divided by the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989, separating West and East Berlin.
The mayor also invoked former President Ronald Reagan in the statement, telling President Trump to “think of your predecessor Ronald Reagan. Remember his words: ‘Tear down this wall.’ And so I say: Dear Mr. President, don’t build this wall!”
Reagan’s words were from his notable Cold War speech at Brandenburg Gate and a challenge to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Mueller’s statement comes after President Trump was scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto next week to discuss the border wall. The president had campaigned on a plan that would have Mexico pay for it, but Nieto canceled the meeting Tuesday after Trump signed an executive order allowing the wall’s construction.
On Friday, both leaders had a “very friendly call,” according to Trump, who said they are “going to be working on a fair relationship and a new relationship.”
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