Brussels – Donald Trump’s advance worries the European Union. The former U.S. president and Republican candidate for the White House in November’s presidential election wins the electoral confrontation (caucus) in Iowa with party rivals, standing as the main challenger to the Democrats. Scenarios loom that generate fears for trans-Atlantic relations in Brussels. “In the current geopolitical situation, it is important that the EU and the United States continue to work strongly together, which is the best way to deal with the challenges,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, commissioner for Trade and the Economy, at the end of the Ecofin Council proceedings.
The past Trump term on the Old Continent left a trail. A duty-fueled trade war, threats and blackmail to the ‘Made in’ label for failure to buy U.S. products, defense tensions with diverse views on NATO and its future. There are fears on the horizon of a return to a past that the current administration has worked to get rid of. Five years of rebuilding a relationship that was called into question, as the steel tariff agreement shows, risking having to start all over again. An eventual return of Trump imposes the appropriate reflections. “It is clear that we have to strengthen ourselves,” Dombrovskis stresses.
Europe must know how to be united, Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian prime minister, now an MEP, added. A longtime politician, he warns, “Republicans send a message to the world: democracy is fighting for survival.” With Trump at the head of the U.S. “window closed for Europe as well.”
Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump on the landslide Iowa caucuses victory!
– Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) January 16, 2024
Despite the name, however, Europe shows less compactness. Among member states, Hungary and Italy are complimenting and cheering Trump. The prime minister of Bupadest, Viktor Orban, hails the victory in Iowa on his X profile, where he posts a photo of the Republican incumbent accompanied by the words “a long-awaited victory,” complete with an image of clapping hands. League leader and Transportation Minister Matteo Salvini flaunts his English to express personal “congratulations to Donald Trump for his overwhelming Iowa caucus victory.”
One Europe looks across the Atlantic with concern, while another has an opposing view that needs explaining. Because on the sustainability game, where Italy too has much to do and even more to lose, U.S. competition is likely to weigh, not a little, on the path of reform and economic revival. The Green Deal is in every way a geopolitical challenge to the United States, which has responded to this challenge with protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act. If the current president, Democrat Joe Biden, is ‘the friend’ of the EU, concerns about Trump may not exactly be entirely unfounded.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
