How will US-EU relations develop, and what changes could we expect as Donald Trump takes office? RT discussed with some European politicians.
The EU’s relationship with Donald Trump will see “a huge shift,” says Beatrix von Storch MEP, deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany party.
“I am very hopeful for good relations with the US. He wants what we also want, our nation first, even though we want a common market within the European Union, this is all in line with the plans and what I see from the President-elect Trump,” she told RT.
According to UKIP MEP Ray Finch, “the EU political elite have a problem now because they spent all the time criticizing Donald Trump. And just like Brexit they never thought it would happen.”
“Now in the next few months they are going to have to eat a lot a humble pie. Because if the president of the US is upset with you, you have a problem,” Finch added.
Janice Atkinson, British Independent MEP, also compared Trump’s incoming presidency to Brexit: “It is a new reality check. Brexit sent an earthquake through Europe and President-elect Trump is Brexit with a nuclear warhead.”
French presidential candidate and leader of the right-wing National Front party, Marine Le Penn “is riding high in the polls,” Atkinson said.
“Italy is going to have a general election, and Germany is going to have a general election. There’s going to be a new order,” she said.
“I was in the European Parliament this week. You got arch enemy No. 1, Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian Prime Minister and leader of the ALDE group [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe]. He’s got his EU army; he’s desperate to deploy those troops [saying]“We must stop the aggressor on our borders.” But are there aggressors? It’s not the illegal immigrants…not the jihadists that are slipping through…It’s Russia; that’s who is talking about. That’s the frightening part of being in the European Parliament. But with a new world order in America, in Europe, in Britain, I think we can make Europe great again,” Atkinson told RT.
Franco Frattini, Italy's former foreign minister, expects no changes in EU-US relations with Donald Trump’s presidency: “In Europe, there have been different perceptions about foreign policy, the European policy of President Trump. My impression is that in the end the traditional and historical alliance between the US and Europe will be kept, will stay.”
“I don’t see excessive problems except in some member states of Europe, they are maybe afraid, wrongly to me, that President Trump will leave them in a dangerous situation vis-à-vis Russian Federation aggression. Seems to me, there is not a problem of aggression by the Russian Federation. All the member states of Europe should be calm and quiet and accept a fruitful cooperation with the new President of the US.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.