"Idiot, Clown, Or Hero?": Europe Ponders The Donald
By Tyler Durden
It was just seven weeks ago when
Initially that move was seen as cruel and Orban was cast by some as a kind of first European mover in the effort to strip away refugees’ basic human rights in the name of preserving Western Europe’s “Christian heritage.”
Fast forward nine months and the mood has changed. Dramatically. Fears of terrorism, rape, assault, and rampant violence plague everyday life for many Europeans and more European equivalents of Trump’s Mexican border wall have been erected in countries other than Hungary.
In many ways, Trump is the leader many Europeans want, even though most would never say so aloud as it flies in the face of everything the bloc is supposed to stand for and recalls the region’s rather uncomfortable past.
Trump has been called a populist, a nationalist, and at worst, a fascist. All of those movements are once again on the rise in Europe largely as a response to the refugee crisis (just look at PEGIDA, and the Soldiers of Odin). Of course there are still those Europeans who find Trump repugnant – the antithesis of an Angela Merkel.
CBC is out with some interesting commentary on all of the above.
“As hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers continue to land on Europe’s shores, and as an opposing sentiment rises, for some, Trump’s sturdy wall can’t be built here quickly enough,” Foreign Correspondent Nahlah Ayed writes. “The Republican leadership contender’s tough talk on migration, on Muslims, and on Europe’s approach to both, is giving Trump strange but tangible traction on the non-voting side of the Atlantic.”
Here, for instance is what Jean-Marie Le Pen tweeted late last month:
Si j’étais américain, je voterais Donald TRUMP… Mais que Dieu le protège !
— Jean-Marie Le Pen (@lepenjm) February 27, 2016
And then there is of course the incomparable right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders (see more on Geert here), who said this:
I hope @realDonaldTrump will be the next US President. Good for America, good for Europe. We need brave leaders. pic.twitter.com/FWJSaQdClM
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) December 7, 2015
“The immigration issue and the position he’s taken on Mexico, you know, it resonates with many on the European continent,” Peter Trubowitz, director of the London School of Economics’ United States Centre told CBC. “They’re worried about immigration, worried about refugees and it’s probably no surprise that Le Pen endorsed Donald Trump.”
On the other side, are those who say Europeans that support Trump are just as misguided as the Americans who have pledged their vote to the bellicose billionaire. Here’s the front page of last month’s Libération. It reads: “the big idiot on the rise.”
And here’s Der Spiegel with the headline: “Madness: America’s Agitator”
Finally, CBC warns that Trump’s affinity for Vladimir Putin has some Europeans concerned that the US may abandon the “losers” …read more
Source: "Idiot, Clown, Or Hero?": Europe Ponders The Donald
