Prague, May 10 (CTK) – Donald Trump is sure of becoming the Republican candidate for U.S. president, and his mere candidacy, let alone his possible election victory, will have a negative impact on the world and Europe, including the Czech Republic, Jan Machacek writes in daily Lidove noviny (LN) yesterday.
As a contender for the presidential post, Trump has clearly stood up against free trade and globalisation, which are the values the Czech open, industrial and pro-export economy benefits from, Machacek writes.
If the USA embarks on the path of protectionism, it will encourage protectionist forces elsewhere in the world, because the USA has always been the world’s leader of free trade liberalisation, Machacek writes.
Even if Trump were not elected president, it is evident that the agenda he promotes, which is unfavourable to prosperous international trade, will be to a certain extent adopted not only by the whole Republican Party but also by Hillary Clinton, the main Democrat contender for president, who, in addition, faces the pressure of her intra-party rival Bernie Sanders in this respect, Machacek writes.
The hope for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal was feeble until recently, but it has become even much weaker now, he writes.
Another, perhaps a far bigger problem, is that with the populist Trump’s official candidacy for president, the USA will cease to be the world’s teacher and beacon of liberal, constitutional democracy, Machacek continues.
True, many have felt irritated by the U.S. practice of sermonising others, teaching lessons and issuing warnings, but the fact is that the world would be worse if it had no such sermonising beacon (combined with an economic and military strength), Machacek writes.
Such a world would lack any values and it would be driven by nothing but greed and competing interests. It would lack a strong subject that would be self-confident enough to consider itself an example for others to follow, Machacek writes.
By the time people such as [radicals] Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen, and parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Austria’s Freedom Party come to power in Europe, the USA will have become silent and will no longer exert its influence on and teach lessons to Europe. It will no longer warn the Poles and Hungarians about the ways to approach the freedom of press and liberal democracy. It will not do so because it will be ashamed of itself and will find it inappropriate to teach lessons to others, Machacek writes.
Let’s imagine Trump really becoming U.S. president. He might for example, ask the Czech Republic to pay the market price for being protected within NATO, otherwise he would return the Czechs to the Russian embrace. Sincerely, how many voters in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary would be ready to pay the market price for their own safety? How popular would NATO become in their eyes? Machacek asks.
If Trump were elected president, there are two possible further scenarios. Either the Republican Party and his large team of advisers will pacify him and made him normal, or he will remain an unpredictable powder keg, will ignore the hostile Congress and will govern through various executive decrees, Machacek writes.
Unfortunately, the world and Europe simultaneously face a number of other challenges, including a period of steady stagnation. It would do no harm alone, but the absence of a robust economic growth will boost the positions of nationalists, extremists and populists of all kinds all over the world, Machacek writes.
Even if Brexit did not come true, pressures can be expected to promote multi-speed EU integration, which might push Central Europe further eastwards of the integration core, he writes.
In addition, the EU-Turkey deal on migrants may collapse and refugees may start flooding Europe again, Machacek writes.
Europe is doing everything that plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin without Putin having to take the slightest efforts. Simultaneously, the world watches the rise of Trump who says he would manage to do business with Putin, if elected U.S. president, Machacek writes.
rtj/t/kva
