Europe Is Horrified by Trump, but He Would Fit Right In
Comment of the Day

March 03 2016

Commentary by David Fuller

Europe Is Horrified by Trump, but He Would Fit Right In

Here is the opening of this interesting article from Bloomberg:

From the volume of the outrage, you’d think Europeans had never dealt with the likes of Donald Trump before. The French newspaper Libération called him “the American Nightmare.” The German newsweekly Der Spiegel slapped his face on its cover in front of flames crawling up an American flag. (Online, the fire was animated.) Wherever one looks in the continent, there’s rising alarm in the media about the possibility that Trump could become president of the U.S.

And yet, as much as the headlines make him out to be an American phenomenon, in Europe, Trump would fit right in. His mix of nationalistic nativism and economic protectionism has proved a winning formula for far-right parties across the continent. Trump’s rise is reminiscent of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s, which stunned the French media and political class when he made it to the second round of his country’s presidential election in 2002. A former paratrooper who’d questioned the historical significance of the Holocaust, he was widely considered far too unconventional, far too crude—and, frankly, far too racist—to ever be granted a shot at the country’s highest office.

Voters decided differently. By the time the ballots were counted, the candidate dismissed as a joke by the establishment was one of two presidential contenders. “I kept saying, ‘Be careful, he could win,’ ” recalls Christiane Chombeau, who at the time covered the far-right political movement for Le Monde. “But nobody believed me. They would say, ‘Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen.’ ”

David Fuller's view

I think the common theme enabling Trump-like politicians to emerge from Europe to the USA is slow GDP growth, higher unemployment and/or low salaries among largely blue-collar workers.  They are the byproduct of either failed economic systems or at least a sustained period of underperformance.  Trump-like politicians also reflect their followers’ frustrations.  The same environment will also produce hard left-wing populists.  We are usually in trouble when either extreme is in power.   

(See also: If Europe, of all places, hasn’t become immune to the radical right, no place can)

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