Emmanuel Macron has warned that Donald Trump’s crackdown on US scientific research threatens America’s economy and democracy, as the French leader and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen made a pitch to researchers to come to Europe instead.

“No one could have thought that the world’s biggest democracy, whose economic model relies so heavily on science, on innovation and on its ability?.?.?.?to have disseminated this innovation more widely than its European peers, would make such a mistake. But here we are,” Macron told a conference at Paris’s Sorbonne university on Monday.

“Without free scientific inquiry, we lose?.?.?.?pillars of our societies which are the very heart of western liberal democracies, first and foremost of which is our relationship with the truth,” the French president said.