“Europe must avoid two fatal errors, wait and divide”

LAmericans chose Donald Trump, again. It is not up to another country to contest this sovereign choice. We can like it or hate it, it's something we have to deal with.

Respecting and composing does not mean forbidding ourselves from thinking, even less depriving ourselves from drawing lessons for our democracies. Recognizing this free American choice must above all not prevent us from seeing the catastrophe that this presidential campaign represented, and which undoubtedly heralds this new mandate.

We have witnessed an unprecedented brutalization of the debate (or the fight), in the words of Donald Trump but also, against him, with two assassination attempts; to an extreme polarization of candidates and voters, who seem to have nothing in common and claim it; to a worrying privatization of politics, with crazy sums committed by both camps and the incredible role of billionaire Elon Musk, who went so far as to organize a lottery to pay voters.

These elements go beyond the Trump phenomenon, and we have long seen the fruits of it in Europe, in the populist, far-right and far-left parties, in the dramatic deterioration of the debate, which is no longer respectful of people. nor facts.

The lessons to be learned go beyond form and are not so much in the victory of Donald Trump as in the defeat of Kamala Harris. She only led a campaign against it, thinking that anti-Trump nausea would be enough: a fatal error, often made in France and in Europe! The Democrats have, once again, led an arrogant and offbeat campaign: that of those who know, embody good, prefer the societal to the social.

Let's not be fooled: like Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump disguises himself as the defender of the people, even though he is an heir, whose entire life is disconnected from that of the middle and working classes. Above all, let us not renounce our values: to win against the populists and the violent, we must not imitate them, but, first, avoid the collapse of entire territories thanks to decent public services and regain consideration for every citizen.

In the front row

But the subject that concerns us, more than anything, is our condition as Europeans. What will this election actually change? No one knows, the anxiety is all the greater: a new Trump mandate could go from rude indifference to total abandonment of Ukraine and NATO [Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique Nord]. The European Union (EU) will at best be neglected, and at worst attacked, by a trade war and brutal dumping (cutting taxes and environmental standards) whose victims will be our industries and our jobs. Faced with this unpredictable hurricane, Europe must avoid two fatal errors: waiting and dividing.

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