What Trump’s victory means for Europe

OPINION:

President-elect Donald Trump’s comeback and the victory of the Republican Party in taking back control of Congress, apart from giving a new wave of hope and energy for the conservative movements and politicians worldwide, should serve as a prime example of political strategy.

The similarity of the major issues in American and European politics and the difference in approaches is a case study that could empower Europe’s conservative leaders and continue the wave of national pragmatism, a capitalist approach and the revival of common sense.

While the Democrats spoke to the mainstream media about “joy” and “weird,” Mr. Trump was face to face with Americans voters in his marathon of rallies, using modern media channels and recording podcasts with the most popular hosts.

He was tireless, prepared and energetic. He looked more qualified for the job than the giggling vice president, Kamala Harris. At the same time, he was not a boring mainstream politician but the funniest troll a presidential campaign has ever seen.

Mr. Trump was honest yet optimistic. He was clear about addressing the problems and made people dream about a bright future. He hit hard on the weak spots of the Biden administration’s policies and offered solutions to each one.

He clearly stated the major issues in today’s society and economy, which are similar to those in Europe. Open borders lead to chaos, high crime, draining of social systems and housing programs, religious and cultural tension and clashes and an enforced synthetic change of the voter base and demographics.

Liberal governing led to high inflation, increased debt and more regulations and bureaucracy that drove away investors, factories and jobs and reduced gross domestic product. Expensive energy due to the green political agenda led to deindustrialization, loss of jobs, loss of competitive power on the global markets, higher trade deficits and increasing national debt.

The loss of common sense on the cultural front opened girls’ and women’s athletics to biological boys and men, men’s restrooms to tampons and hospitals to sex reassignment surgery for minors.

Mr. Trump clearly pointed to the solutions as well: closed borders, background checks, deporting illegals and criminals, enforcing the laws on petty crimes and religious extremism and pushing voter identification legislation. A libertarian approach to the economy: getting rid of regulations, optimizing the government, cutting taxes, protecting manufacturers through tariffs and trade agreements, reducing inflation and interest rates, offering cheap capital for entrepreneurs and decreasing debt.

Cheap energy for the American industry: continuing strategic projects such as the Keystone pipeline, drilling for oil and natural gas, fair trade with the biggest oil and gas exporters and revising the subsidies for green energy projects that have destroyed enormous chunks of nature with ineffective and unrecyclable windmill farms.

Return of common sense: Banning men from women’s sports, banning sex reassignment surgery for children, forcing schools and universities to get back to education and stay away from critical race theory, pro-Hamas movements, gender studies, LGBTQ propaganda and fake science political activism as part of the government’s domestic and international agenda.

These are precisely the problems of Europe and the solutions that Europe needs.

Mr. Trump has won the political debate on all of these by a landslide. And he did it alone — surrounded by the government and the judicial system, against the political establishment, against the mainstream media.

Every political leader in Europe except Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban should learn this lesson from the best in the business. The victory against the left in the greatest democracy and the biggest economy in the world sends a clear signal of hope, change and a bright future. But this victory is not going to do the job of European politicians. It can serve as an example, but it will not win the European elections.

We, the Europeans, need our strong conservative leaders to step up and lead. These leaders are full of energy and knowledge, do not fear debates and tough questions and are ready to face their opponents, fellow citizens, journalists and the new generation of content creators on the internet.

We need leaders who are competent but also entertaining. The conservative movement around Europe needs leaders with a dominant appearance who also have a human approach and respect for faith, history, values and tradition.

Europe needs a strong political message on borders, crime, immigration, energy, defense, competitiveness, growth and demography.

Finally, I say that Europeans are spoiled. Liberal leaders are insisting for you, American taxpayers, to continue paying for our security, which is blatantly insolent.

Strong leaders such as Mr. Orban in Hungary, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Giorgia Meloni in Italy have a hard spine, a brave and clear message and powerful campaigners. They are also great communicators.

Mr. Orban is the perfect example of a national leader who stood his ground against the federal bureaucracy. But in a continent and a union in which most of the states are ruled by weak and indecisive lefties, things are far from how they should be.

Luckily, we are in a new situation now. European conservatives and voters will have a friend and an ally in the White House and friends and allies leading the Senate and the House.

The U.S. will again build friendships and partnerships instead of interfering and meddling as in the past four years.

But most importantly, we all have the perfect example: Donald Trump.

The lesson for the European conservatives is short and clear: Learn from the best, do the best you can, win your elections and make Europe and America great again.

• George Harizanov is the CEO of the Institute of Right-Wing Policies in Sofia, Bulgaria. https://idp-bg.com.