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With Trump’s defeat in the US elections, many European right-wing populists lose their symbolic figure. But does this really mean room for maneuver for AfD and company?
By Kai Küstner, ARD capital studio
The admiration is unwavering: The morning after the US elections, AfD chief Tino Chrupalla tweeted that Donald Trump had “spurred democracy.” He still credits Trump with implementing the election promises and not starting any more wars. Why the defeat of the “America First President” must also be a defeat for the AfD, asks Chrupalla in an interview with the ARD capital study: “We do politics for our people in Germany, that has no effect, as was the case in the United States.”
Without consequences? The other Bundestag parties see Joe Biden’s victory, if only narrowly, as a red flag for right-wing nationalists. “The result of the US elections shows that lies and hateful tirades can only go so far,” said European spokesperson for the Greens in the Bundestag, Franziska Brantner. And when it comes to the EU, the Polish government, for example, has maintained a close relationship with Trump and has therefore moved a little further away from Brussels: “It may well be that now things are going in one direction different. It would be welcome. “
“Low blow” for populists
Even before the US elections, one of Europe’s most influential intellectuals, Bulgarian Ivan Krastev, predicted a “cheap blow” for European populists in the event of a Biden victory in an analysis for the “European Council on Foreign Relations” . Because the “illiberal” governments of Poland and Hungary, as he calls them, see Trump America as a natural ally, and their room for maneuver to weaken the EU would be reduced without Trump.
CDU presidium member Elmar Brok sees it that way too. “They have to embark much more on a common European position to guarantee the security interests of their countries. The playing field is changing,” diagnosed the former president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the EU Parliament in an interview with the ARD capital study.
There is no reason to give the go-ahead
However, it remains to be seen whether that also means that Biden will reverse the withdrawal of thousands of US troops decided by Trump, without warning and as a punitive action against Germany. Both CDU politician Brok and Greens MP Brantner also hope to have an impact on the recently stalled Brexit negotiations.
Biden has Irish Catholic roots and one of his first calls was to the Irish head of government. Pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to agree with the EU on a trade deal is mounting.
But even if someone with Biden might soon be sitting in the White House and seeing Germany and the EU less as competitors or even opponents and more as allies, no one in political Berlin really sees a reason to give the thumbs up.
“Hollow”
The example of the Republicans in the United States shows, warned the president of the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in ZDFWhat if a once stable conservative party is influenced by extreme wings like the “Tea Party”? “Then its core is emptying. That should also be a warning to us here in the conservative parties.”
In any case, it would be premature to proclaim the end of right-wing nationalism in the world in light of Trump’s defeat not exactly crushing and certainly related to Corona.
In any case, there seems to be a social divide on both sides of the Atlantic. Even if Berlin now expects an energy boost for the liberal world order.
