Whether in Brussels or their capitals, most European leaders woke up to a wildly different reality than what they had hoped for—but others believe a second Trump presidency is the best thing that could happen to the continent.
People in Europe were already sipping their morning coffee when Donald Trump’s victory became inevitable, looking at the creeping electoral votes counter in shocked disbelief, infused with either panic or joy.
This ultimate victory of pro-peace, common-sense politics should not have come as a surprise for those who’ve been paying attention, but few would have imagined it to be this decisive so early, with such a great margin in the popular vote as well. Trump bagged five million more votes than Kamala Harris. We also can’t help but ask where some 16 million Democrat voters disappeared to since 2020.
In any case, the results are a wake-up call for the European Union’s leftist elite, who’ve been posing as the gatekeepers of democracy—as long as their preferred side wins in elections.
Leftist leaders such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were openly rooting for Harris, while security officials were stoking the unfounded fears that Trump would scrap NATO’s defense umbrella over Europe and open the gates to Russia. A Harris victory would have been met by “a collective sigh of relief,” was how Steven Blockmans, a senior research fellow at the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies, summarized the atmosphere last week.
In Brussels, the European Greens might be the ones who are the most disappointed right now. Last week, the party put out a statement in which they begged their U.S. counterpart, Jill Stein, to pull out from the race and endorse Harris, saying she was “the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House.” Calling The Donald “anti-democratic” is rich, coming from European parties who have lost more of their voters in recent years than anyone else.
Brussels’ social democrat S&D group is probably devastated as well. Group leader Iratxe Garcia Perez put out a short statement in which she not only skips congratulating the new president-elect but doesn’t even mention Trump by name. Implicitly calling for some kind of resistance against the enemies of democracy, she declares:
Following the U.S. election, democratic and progressive forces must work together on a strong transatlantic and multilateral agenda which delivers for and protects our citizens.
With the result almost confirmed, most of this disappointment is buried under shallow platitudes, as EU leaders scramble to congratulate the winner in anticipation of the next four years. After all, despite all the talk of European strategic autonomy, Brussels’s policies since the beginning of the Ukraine war only made Europe more, not less, dependent on the U.S., both in terms of security and energy.
Europe’s first to congratulate was one of the few who genuinely meant it: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Orbán has been the most vocal supporter of Trump throughout the campaign and even visited his Mar-a-Lago home a few months ago to discuss peace in Ukraine—stressing countless times that Trump is our best chance of finally putting an end to the conflict through diplomatic means.
“The biggest comeback in US political history! Congratulations to President Trump on his enormous win. A much needed victory for the World,” Orbán tweeted.
Hungary is also one of the very few EU countries—along with Slovenia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria—where a clear majority preferred Trump over Harris, according to the most recent poll by Europe Elects. Pollsters also asked people in a few EU-aspirant countries too, and most (including Serbia, Moldova, and Georgia) sided with the pro-Trump camp. On the other side, the most pro-Harris Europeans, unsurprisingly, are Scandinavian, Dutch, and German.
However, congratulations started to trickle from every corner of Europe, despite Harris still refusing to concede at the time of writing.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “warmly” congratulated Trump on X, wishing for good transatlantic relations in the years to come. Leaders of Germany, France, Spain, and Italy followed suit shortly afterwards.
President Macron of France acknowledged there might be differences in some views and policies but vowed to move past them and cooperate with Washington in good faith. “Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity,” he wrote.
Italy’s national conservative PM Giorgia Meloni, whose strong anti-illegal migration rhetoric has always resonated with Trump’s, sent her “sincere congratulations,” and said the strategic bond between the U.S. and Italy based on “common values” and “historic friendship” would become even stronger under his administration. “Good work, President.”
Over in Kyiv, President Zelensky also had no choice but to congratulate Trump on “his impressive election victory,” but said he was hoping for a “peace through strength” approach from the incoming administration in terms of global security affairs and a continued “strong bipartisan support” for Ukraine from the U.S.
It’s no secret that Trump intends to cut back on arms deliveries to Ukraine, just as most U.S. voters apparently want him to do. He also said he could foster a ceasefire agreement between Kyiv and Moscow even before taking office in January, which would eventually become the basis of a lasting peace treaty. Whether Zelensky or Brussels likes this approach, de-escalation is in the best interests of both his people and Europe, so let’s hope Trump succeeds.
