Jubilation and panic – the world reacts to the new president
Russia’s parliament erupted in cheers at news of Donald Trump’s victory, said Vladimir Frolov in The Moscow Times, and President Putin was quick to congratulate him. No surprise really: Trump has said he’ll “be able to get along” with Putin, and his foreign policy statements have been “music to Moscow’s ears”. Trump has suggested he’ll join Russia in supporting Syria’s Assad, and has hinted he might recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea and end sanctions. Yet behind Moscow’s exuberance is a certain apprehension. One key tool the Kremlin has used to meet its foreign policy goals has been unpredictability: but that has relied on the US responding “rationally”. Now, with an equally unpredictable partner in Washington – one with a dismaying penchant for getting personal – Moscow’s freedom of manoeuvre could be blocked. Yet Russia is right to celebrate, said Alexander Rahr in Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Moscow). Trump wants to work with us for better relations. We foresee the removal of US missile defence systems from Eastern Europe (“the Poles and the Baltic states will have to put their tail between their legs and adapt”). And Ukraine, which had been hoping for weapons from a President Clinton, will instead have to make peace with its breakaway eastern regions.
People in China are saying this marks a “political revolt”, a Us-style “Cultural Revolution”, said the Global Times (Beijing). And there’s no doubt that if someone like Trump – widely seen “as a blowhard and an egomaniac” – can become president, “there is something wrong with the existing political order”. But in the event, he’s unlikely to be “bold enough to really change” his country and keep his campaign promises. The truth is that “in an elite-controlled US”, most of those holding power won’t support him. And if he does try to raise trade barriers to block competition from China, using his much-touted business skills, he’ll find China is more than capable of hitting back.
The American people have chosen “the path of racism, hatred and intolerance”, said El Universal (Mexico City). During Trump’s vicious campaign, Mexico and Mexicans were his punching bags. Those who supported him – a bare half of Americans who voted – seem set on returning the US “to the days of white supremacy”. We can only hope they fail. “Now more than ever, the rest of the world must stand as a dam” against a coming flood of ugliness.
Europe’s leaders have offered their customary congratulations, said Klaus-dieter Frankenberger in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, yet behind the scenes they’re panicking. A politician who has repeatedly blasted Nato is now leader of the West. By contrast, Europe’s “resentful, hate-filled” populists are cock-a-hoop, said Frank Jansen in Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin). Leaders of far-right parties rejoiced in exultant tweets. The likes of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and commentators on right-wing news sites celebrated a “crushing defeat of the establishment”. Germany’s anti-immigrant agitator Lutz Bachmann has even appealed to Trump to “reserve cells in Guantánamo” for “traitors” such as Angela Merkel. Trump’s victory also strengthens the prospect of Geert Wilders triumphing in next year’s election in the Netherlands, and Marine Le Pen doing the same in France. Italian PM Matteo Renzi could be the first casualty in a new populist surge, said La Repubblica (Rome). If voters reject his proposed constitutional changes in the 4 December referendum, as looks likely, he says he’ll resign. That could result in a government that would include the Northern League’s Matteo Salvini, a bitter foe of the EU and an admirer of President Putin.
This backward-looking “counter-revolution” aims to roll back “freedoms and rights” across the board, said El País (Madrid). Our best hope is that once in the White House, Trump will “learn and adapt”; and that a Republican-controlled Congress will keep him in check. His conciliatory victory speech was an encouraging sign. But the big worry remains: his terrible character and his ugly tendency to “despise, harass and insult”.