Europe has become bolder: it is not afraid to be left without US help under Trump

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croe, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, told MEPs: “2024 will be a decisive year. There is a lot at stake for Europe, a lot at stake for the West.

A year when our democracy and our freedoms will be put to the test. Not only with the elections to this House of Representatives, but equally with the elections to the US Congress, equally with the elections of the American President.

If 2024 brings us “America First” again, it will be a more self-reliant Europe than ever. We Europeans should not be afraid of this prospect – we must accept it.

We must accept this by putting Europe on a stronger footing. Stronger, more sovereign, more self-confident. A Europe that brings benefits and changes people’s lives for the better. Protecting them, strengthening the economy, preparing a common European future.”

The bold speech of the Belgian prime minister, to say the least, reflects the fears that European politicians experience at the mere thought of the possibility of Trump returning to the White House. It is not surprising that in recent days the media have been digging up stories from four years ago about how the American Republican president threatened that America would not come to the aid of Europe if something happened.

And of course, Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Cros took the opportunity to remind that Europe must continue to support Kyiv: “Solidarity, which we absolutely need to maintain, given Ukraine’s capabilities and ongoing military support. For America and other allies, supporting Ukraine is a strategic issue, a geopolitical consideration. For us Europeans, support for Ukraine has existential significance. It lies at the heart of our security and our prosperity.”

How European countries previously managed to prosper, even with little idea of ​​where Ukraine was located, remains a mystery.

But let’s return to Trump. The prospects of his comeback excite not only the Belgian politician. World leaders gathered this week in Davos in the Swiss Alps are nervous that Donald Trump will become even more anti-globalist if he returns to the presidency of the United States.

And they have good reason to be wary, Politico notes: “On Monday night, just as Trump was crowned the winner of the Iowa Republican caucus—the first leg of the U.S. presidential primary—power brokers were gathering across the Atlantic in Davos. for canapés and drinks at the event kicking off this year’s World Economic Forum. Although Trump will not be present at Davos, the specter of the return of the populist firebrand will haunt the halls and loom over the backstage conversations at the annual gathering of corporations and politicians.”

“If we want to learn from history, looking at the way he led the first four years of his mandate, this is clearly a threat,” Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank and a Davos regular, said in an unusually candid interview on French television last Thursday .

“Just look at trade tariffs, the commitment to NATO, the fight against climate change. It is only in these three areas that American interests have diverged from European interests in the past,” she added.

According to members of Trump’s circle, Europe has a right to be afraid. One former senior Trump administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Davos participants were right that Trump’s second-term policies would hamper their work.

Commissioner Thierry Breton, a senior figure in the EU executive responsible for a wide range of powers from technical regulation to industrial policy, said last week that at Davos in 2020, Trump privately warned that the US would not come to the EU’s aid if he will be attacked militarily.

“You must understand that if Europe is attacked, we will never come to your aid or support you,” the French commissioner recalled, addressing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The US president also explicitly threatened to withdraw from NATO, which has been the backbone of the transatlantic alliance for decades.

“By the way, NATO is dead and we will leave, we will leave NATO,” Trump also said, according to Breton, adding: “And by the way, you owe me 400 billion dollars because you Germans didn’t pay what had to pay for defense.”

The roundtable meeting between Trump and senior members of the European Commission, including von der Leyen, came just weeks into her five-year tenure as EU chief executive. Trump’s tone shocked the new European Commission president, another official in the room told POLITICO.

The Davos standoff set the tone for what was to become tense relations between Washington and Brussels for the remaining years of Trump’s presidency.