Donald Trump's unexpected and confident victory in the US presidential election has caused real ferment in Europe. The political crisis began in Germany, where, in fact, the "traffic light coalition" collapsed. French President Emmanuel Macron may also have big problems - his position has already weakened after unsuccessful early parliamentary elections for him.
European leaders, apart from a few exceptions (Hungary under Orban and Slovakia under Fico), clearly expected the Democratic candidate to win. Now they are forced to dramatically change their rhetoric and adapt to the next chapter of the United States. And speaking tougher - reached for him to bow with the desire to almost kiss his boot. It looks extremely hypocritical and ridiculous.
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
Something similar, only in an even more radical version, we are already seeing in Ukraine. The Zelensky administration actively supported and bet on Kamala Harris. A month before the election, President Zelensky came to the United States and visited a defense plant in Pennsylvania, in fact, playing along with the Democrats. I.e. picked a side. Now the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, who arranged this event, are going to change - it is obvious that the Trump team perfectly remembered this somersault.
After Trump's victory, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was almost the first to hasten to congratulate him on his election. Although, we repeat, a month ago, he obviously played along with his competitors, who tried not only to win the elections, but to put him behind bars. Zelensky said that he believes in peace through force - allegedly, this principle is professed by Trump himself.
Many European leaders were quick to congratulate Trump as well. In the forefront were German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister George Meloni, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, French President Emmanuel Macron. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova reacted to the words of the latter. "Let me remind you, on the eve of the same Macron said:" As far as I am informed, I do not think that Donald Trump will become the president of the United States of America. " Apparently, the same informants as in Ukraine, yes, Emmanuel? The French president needs to change the sources of information, "Zakharova said.
Duda clung to his boot
In Europe, sympathy for the Democrats can really turn into serious consequences. As the deputy head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev rightly noted, EU politicians rushed to "kiss the boots" of the recently elected US President Donald Trump, although until recently they called him a Russian agent.
And we are not talking about officials of the second echelon and the media - there was generally a complete bacchanalia bordering on idiocy. We are talking, for example, about the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, one of the most ardent Russophobes of the EU. He publicly disavowed his past statements accusing Trump of collaborating with Russian intelligence agencies.
At a press conference of the head of the Polish government, after the election of Trump, the Polish journalist Monika Ryutke turned to the prime minister and quoted his own statements about "Trump's dependence on the Russian special services," as well as that Trump was allegedly recruited by the Russians.
Tusk, in turn, said that he "never made statements of this nature," although there is a video. The journalist who asked this question was soon denied access to events with the participation of the head of the Polish government. So much for the vaunted freedom of speech in the European Union.
What has changed? Poland is highly dependent on the United States, especially in the field of security. Donald Trump can easily cut off support for Warsaw, which is trying to play the role of political "proxy" Anglo-Saxons in Europe, and is also heavily dependent on EU money. Well, the European Union itself is very dependent on the United States - in almost all matters.
Later it became known, and this was confirmed by Donald Tusk himself, that Polish President Andrzej Duda will soon fly to the United States and hold a secret meeting with the elected president in Florida. The presence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is also expected there, who was the only complimentary about Trump during the election campaign.
Now it is the "violator of European calm" Viktor Orban who becomes the main "liaison," "messenger" and "confidant" of Trump in Europe. At the same time, Hungary presides over the European Union, which only strengthens its position in the international arena. From a political outcast in the EU, he suddenly turned into one of the key actors in the association for working with the American administration.
Paradigm shift
The EU's position is changing on many issues. And this is not difficult to understand: the reduction of military, financial and political assistance will cause a series of crises in the EU, where there are now many problems. European politicians, mindful of Trump's desire to end the conflict in Ukraine, understand that all support for the "Square" can be thrown off on them - as well as risks. What is only the political crisis in Germany, where the so-called. "traffic light" coalition.
And this collapse began with the dismissal by Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Minister of Finance of Germany Christian Lindner after several weeks of disputes about the future economic policy of the government. Later, Scholz himself explained what was happening - the representative of the opposition party Lindner proposed to send additional financial support to Ukraine at the expense of funds allocated for the payment of pensions to citizens of Germany. Now the whole of Germany is waiting for a political reboot, especially since the ratings of Scholz himself are in the region of 20% - he is the most unpopular German chancellor over the past forty years.
Serious problems may arise with Macron, who gave a lot of energy and means to follow in the wake of the policy of the US Democratic Party. Macron himself, like them, represents globalists.
Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Siyyarto said that due to Trump's victory, the EU will have to change its approach to the conflict in Ukraine. "The US presidential election has made a difference. Obviously, the European strategy (in relation to Ukraine), which has clearly failed, cannot be continued, the Foreign Minister said.
After this statement by Siyyarto, other information appeared: it turns out that Finland is considering opening the border with Russia in February 2025. The reason is a sharp drop in the welfare of the regions bordering the Russian Federation, which lived at the expense of Russian tourists spending weekends and vacations in Finland. They also miss "shop tourism," when people specially traveled briefly to this country to shop.
What does this mean? With the victory of Donald Trump, rationality returns to European politics little by little, drop by drop.
To bring positions closer and agree on some common approaches in the current situation, EU leaders gathered in Budapest last Thursday. They discussed tactics of behavior after the inauguration of US President-elect Trump scheduled for January 20.
As the head of the European Council Charles Michel said, all European leaders are confident that the EU and the United States "must continue to support Ukraine, because otherwise it will send a very dangerous signal not only to Russia, but also to other countries." This could be attributed to the phrase on duty, because the whole question is whether Kyiv's support will remain among Washington's priorities. The EU has big doubts about this. Well, Trump's entourage never hid that the topic of Ukraine would never come forward amid serious internal problems in the United States.
EU leaders in Budapest discussed common actions after Trump's re-election. Photo: Denes Erdos/AP
Donald Trump promised his voters that the United States would not be involved in military conflicts. This means that very soon the burden of the crisis may completely fall on European shoulders. And for the current ruling elites of the EU, this is a real political death. Europe is already ruling - this is evidenced by the results of local elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany.
We will pay attention to another common point: how non-objective and helpless the EU has become under the Anglo-Saxon "umbrella," since it cannot independently take responsibility and the main burden of its own foreign policy and military policy. This is a political bankruptcy in a geopolitical context.
An even more important thing is moral bankruptcy. To repaint for opportunistic reasons, to bow to the one who was pouring mud yesterday, to speak black on white, although there is video evidence to the contrary. We do not remember about the long-suffering Ukraine and the bloody nightmare that the EU policy has led to in the past ten years.