Sucking up to Donald Trump is the order of the day as the European allies calculate what his imminent return to the White House means for them. The consensus seems to be that massaging his ego with shameless flattery is the best way to avoid a repeat of past bust-ups and name-calling. But another school of thought warns: Trump will be far worse this time. Know your enemy. Prepare to fight back.
The US president-elect’s appearance in Paris this weekend, at the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, is akin to throwing down a gauntlet. A nightmare Europeans believed was over has come back to haunt them. It’s real. He’s here again, demanding attention and obeisance. The fawning responses of politicians who previously reviled him speak volumes about Europe’s weakness and divisions.
It’s all rather embarrassing. Cloying praise is genuine in the case of Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, and hard-right populists like Călin Georgescu, who styles himself as Romania’s Trump. The bromantic gestures of Emmanuel Macron, France’s inconstant president, are more disingenuous. He was one of the first to congratulate Trump on his election victory. Having him come to Paris is seen, rather pathetically, as a diplomatic coup.
Anyone who is following EU politics knows that the governments aren’t sucking up… they are in on the ride. Almost every country now has an extreme right wing government, some with open connections with Putin as well. Welcome to the 21st century, where every lesson learned is going down the drain.