In his defense of the U.S. ambassador to Berlin, the author of “Donald Trump’s Berlin whipping boy” casually overlooks the very real threat American interference poses to European politics.
The author dismisses reactions to Richard Grenell’s Breitbart interview — in which he said he would seek to boost “conservative” parties — as unwarranted paroxysms of panic. But at a time when the European project is under attack on multiple fronts ahead of a major parliamentary election in 2019, Europeans are right to be worried.
In Europe, the natural allies of Trump’s brand of conservatism — defined by its xenophobia and calls for a “return” to national greatness — are to be found on the far right. It’s understandable, then, that politicians across the political spectrum interpreted Grenell’s comments as a declaration of allegiance to right-wing populist, nationalist and anti-EU movements.
In Germany, the party most committed to “Making Germany Great Again” is the far-right Alternative for Germany. A potential alliance between Trump’s envoy and the AfD understandably raises a red flag among the establishment: The far-right party is the best candidate to help the White House mold German and European politics in Trump’s image.
Trump’s tactics make clear that meddling in other countries’ national politics is no longer the purview of the Kremlin. For the better part of two years, his agents have disrupted European electoral politics by giving material and spiritual support to various nationalist and Euroskeptic forces, including far-right French leader Marine Le Pen, UKIP and Alternative for Germany.
Steve Bannon, the Trump campaign’s chief ideologue, has been involved with virtually every anti-EU populist project in Europe and allegedly convinced Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini to go into government with the country’s anti-establishment 5Star Movement.
Grenell’s declaration of allegiance to nationalist and illiberal causes makes the American Embassy in Berlin the most high-profile anti-EU voice on European soil. To recognize that threat is not to be paranoid, but to take seriously Washington’s openly stated political goals.
Martin Gak
Religious affairs and ethics correspondent, Deutsche Welle Television
Berlin, Germany