The age of European countries “outsourcing” their security to America has come to an end, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned. It does not matter whether the US presidential election is won by Democrat Kamala Harris or her Republican rival Donald Trump, he added.
Tusk, who served as European Council president from 2014 to 2019, made the remarks in a post on X on Saturday, just days before the November 5 vote in the US.
“Harris or Trump? Some claim that the future of Europe depends on the American elections, while it depends first and foremost on us,” he wrote.
But the EU will only be able to take things into its own hands if it “finally grows up and believes in its own strength,” the prime minister stressed.
“Whatever the outcome [of the US election], the era of geopolitical outsourcing is over” for Europe, Tusk insisted.
The Financial Times said in an article on Saturday that “many Europeans lose sleep at night” over the prospect of Donald Trump winning the election and shattering US security guarantees to its allies, “expressed in the form of NATO and the nuclear umbrella.”
“European supporters of Ukraine also worry that he might try to settle the war there on terms that amounted, in effect, to a victory for Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” the article said.
According to the FT, most Europeans would “feel more comfortable” with Harris in the Oval Office. During the campaign, the Democratic candidate has expressed “ironclad” support for NATO, promised to keep backing Ukraine, and stressed the importance of America’s alliances.
A poll by the Savanta research company carried out in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland last month found that most people in those countries believe a Harris presidency “would be best for European security.” The level of trust in the Democratic candidate among the six surveyed nations was the highest in Spain (70%) and the lowest in Poland (58%).
Earlier this week, the head of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, David McAllister, told Deutsche Welle that the bloc should be prepared for both possible outcomes of the vote in America.
“The tone would be different, but I am certain a Harris administration would also call for Europeans to do more for our own security and defense,” McAllister said.