The installation, entitled Orange Plague, was unveiled at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg earlier this week.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday called for the removal of a satirical statue of U.S. President Donald Trump from the European Parliament, describing it as a “sign of the decline of the entire European Union.”
Writing on X, Fico said that while he does not agree with all of Trump’s policies, “insulting our partners on official premises demonstrates a profound failure to understand the times we live in.”
The sculpture, titled The Orange Plague, was unveiled Tuesday by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt in the Parliament building in Strasbourg. The 2.6-meter work depicts a nude, gold-leaf-covered Trump perched on a frail man’s shoulders, holding a golf club and scales of justice. A plaque reads: “I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden.”
“It is sad that the leadership of the European Parliament, in its blindness, can no longer distinguish between the legitimate right to hold a different opinion and the actions of spiritually bankrupt individuals, adventurers and lunatics,” Fico added, before asking whether the Parliament would tolerate similar depictions of the French president or German chancellor.
The statue was removed on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the European Parliament said after publication. It was part of a two-day exhibition at the initiative of Danish left-wing MEP Per Clausen.
POLITICO was present at the unveiling, where visitors clamored for miniature replicas of the sculpture, which were distributed in several colors. The statue stands in a prominent spot at the entrance to Parliament’s Winston Churchill building, before the corridor linking MEPs’ and Commission officials’ offices with the plenary chamber.
Galschiøt said the work was intended to confront Trump’s policies and start a debate about how the U.S. president was “destroying the world’s only chance to counter the climate catastrophe.”
Clausen defended the installation in a statement. “If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture … then they have no place on the world stage,” he said.
“MEPs have the possibility to hold cultural events/ exhibitions in the European Parliament … These cultural events and exhibitions by Members shall be authorised in advance by the Quaestors who assess the compliance with the rules in place,” the European Parliament press service said in a statement to POLITICO.
“The rules in place outline that cultural events and exhibitions shall under no circumstances be offensive or of an inflammatory nature or contradictory to the values on which the Union is founded or likely to give rise to disturbances in the designated exhibition areas,” the statement says.
Fico has cultivated ties with Trump, meeting him at Mar-a-Lago in January to discuss closer cooperation, including civilian nuclear energy. He has praised the MAGA movement as “a vision that urgently resonates not only in the United States but across the world.”
The sculpture was previously displayed at protests in Copenhagen and the COP30 summit in Brazil. It is due to appear at next month’s COP31 conference in Antalya, Türkiye.
Trump has not commented on the installation.
Gerardo Fortuna contributed to this report. This article was updated.