ROME, January 24. /TASS/. The European Union, in its current state and with its current policies, is headed downhill fast, and Donald Trump’s return to the White House will only accelerate this process, Chairman at Vision & Global Trends. International Institute for Global Analyses, Tiberio Graziani told TASS.
"Trump fully confirmed everything said and promised earlier. He will pursue the carrot-and-stick policy with Europe, holding talks with individual European nations on a bilateral basis. The EU, in the form it is now, is declining, and Trump will simply deliver the ‘last shot’," the expert said.
Trump’s plans to boost domestic production in the US are bad news for Europe, especially Germany, with "Italy feeling the ripple effects too, considering their close economic ties," Graziani noted. "Privileged" relations are expected to be established with certain European countries, "for example, with Poland, which according to the plans of the new administration will at least partly replace Germany in different areas of cooperation, and don’t forget about Hungary too," he said.
Trump will keep pressing for American hegemony, including over Europe, but will require "equal contributions" from it, Graziani continued. "At the same time, Trump’s politics will leave Europe in the lurch while building relations with Russia, China and quickly developing countries of the Global South amid the irreversible process of transition to multipolarity. At the current stage, when we see the complete absence of making decisions on our own and searching for the way out of challenging situations from the EU side, all that bears serious threats, aggravated by internal political crises in a number of countries," he added.