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European politicians cautioned to be patient after Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in the US elections in the early hours of Wednesday morning, warning that a protracted court battle over the outcome would have disastrous consequences for the global reputation of democracy.
Most government leaders remained silent, waiting for events to unfold, although Spanish Foreign Minister Aráncha González Laya urged US leaders to wait until all the votes had been counted.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the German Defense Minister, said: “This is a very explosive situation. This is a situation that can lead to a constitutional crisis in the United States, as experts rightly say. And it is something that should cause us great concern ”.
EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell said: “The American people have spoken. While we await the outcome of the elections, the EU remains ready to continue building a strong transatlantic partnership, based on our shared values and history.
In Germany, the failure of Joe Biden, a committed pro-European and multilateralist, to achieve a resounding victory was causing deep consternation.
Politicians predicted the chaos and warned that the result had revealed that voting for Trump in 2016 was no accident. Even if Biden is ultimately declared the winner, it was suggested that he would be a weakened president, unable to win a Senate majority and therefore vulnerable to being overwhelmed by intense internal pressures.
The chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, Norbert Röttgen, admitted that the results had so far caught Germany off guard. “We are not prepared for that,” he said.
Peter Altmaier, a close political ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “I fear that if it is a close result there will be a very, very long discussion. Regardless of who wins, it is bad that the US election campaign has been directed primarily at internal issues. “
Green German leader Robert Habeck said: “If Trump wins, the global order will fundamentally change. Europe must unite, otherwise it will no longer play a role at the international level ”.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson sidestepped calls in Parliament from opposition leader Keir Starmer for comment, saying: “We as a UK government do not comment on the democratic processes of our friends and allies.”
Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had asked for patience to wait for the final result.
Other high-ranking conservatives, including former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, have said it will be dire for the democratic cause around the world if the elections end on allegations of fraud.
Hunt told the BBC: “My biggest concern is that we forget that America is the leading democracy in the world and if we end up with a great discussion about the process and people talking about stolen elections in the center left and right We’re just going to put a smile on the faces of people like President Putin and President Xi, who will look at their own people and say, ‘Aren’t you pleased that we don’t have any of this mess?’ and that would be an absolute disaster. We must remember that the reputation of democracy throughout the world is at stake here ”.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the former UK ambassador to Washington, said the issue if Trump wins is whether the US continues to underperform on the world stage. He expressed concern that the United States was so internally divided and suffering such deep social problems that Trump will not provide the leadership the world craves. “I’m afraid we will get more of the same or even worse, even a more unpredictable and inconsistent leader even than in the first term,” he said.
Vladimir Putin’s allies in Russia expressed satisfaction with the results so far, stating that previous allegations that Trump’s 2016 victory was due to Russian interference had been refuted.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council of the upper house, said: “[Russia] benefits from any certainty that losers won’t have to resort to [claims of] foreign interference. It is time for America to return to the policy of sanity, in which case we will always support it. It’s time to.”
Pro-Trump and far-right Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša called the result in Trump’s favor and criticized “further delays and denial of fact” from the media.
Iran, one of the countries that is most at stake in the elections due to Trump’s policy of maximum economic pressure on Tehran, reacted by stating that the United States was in decline and predicted that Iran could resist.
President Hassan Rouhani said the outcome of the US elections was not important to his country’s clerical rulers, but called on the next US president to respect international treaties and laws.
