Throughout the day, Czech politicians from all parties have been responding to the victory of former, and now also future President Donald Trump in yesterday’s presidential election in the United States, which is expected to have far-reaching effects both within the country and around the world.
Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and will return to the White House in January after four years.
Prime Minister Fiala (ODS), who is currently on an official visit to Serbia, congratulated Trump on his victory over the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
“Congratulations to Donald Trump on winning the presidential election,” Fiala wrote on social media. “Our common goal is to ensure that the relations between our countries remain at the highest level despite the changes in administration, and that we continue to develop them for the benefit of our citizens.”
Fiala met his Serbian counterpart Milos Vucevic and President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade today. He said he believed that Europe needs to take much more responsibility than before for its own security. “We can’t keep relying on the United States to solve all our problems for us,” he said after meeting Vucevic and Vucic.
He called for more European investment in defence, and modernisation of its armies. According to Fiala, many European countries are aware of this, but more concrete actions are required. As for Trump’s policy on Ukraine, Fiala said he would wait to see what the president-elect actually does.
ODS vice chair Alexandr Vondra MEP wrote on social media that Trump’s landslide victory, including Republican majorities in both houses of the U.S. legislature, would give him space to govern as he saw fit. “The economy decided,” he wrote. “Four years ago, COVID denied him a win, now inflation has secured it for him. The cost of living and the state of the economy are key to people’s decision-making.”
He added that Europe should learn from Trump not to promote the Green Deal so much, and echoed Fiala’s argument that Europe must strengthen its defences. “Keep NATO strong, but don’t rely on the US for everything. They will respect us if we show will and strength. This is doubly true with Ukraine,” he said.
ODS parliamentary group leader Marek Benda, a long-term supporter of the US Republicans, said the election result may lead to a slight deterioration in relations with the EU, but could improve relations with individual countries, especially in the eastern half.
Czech President Petr Pavel congratulated Trump on his victory, and said he was looking forward to continued collaboration on shared global challenges, including support for common allies and upholding European security. “Our Transatlantic bond remains strong,” he added.
Speaking to reporters later on his visit to Bern, Switzerland, Pavel argued that it was in the best interests of both Europe and the United States to remain as positive as possible, regardless of who gets on better or worse with whom. “In the first place, we need to respect the outcome of the US elections. The American people, the voters, have made their choice and we have only one option – to work with it.”
Pavel also refused to be drawn on the specific repercussions of the results for the geopolitical situation, as he said he did not know what Trump’s specific policy would be in relation to Ukraine, the Middle East, Europe or NATO. “Only when we know the specific contours of it can we discuss it,” he said.
However, he stressed that for European countries, “the adversaries are not on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Our opponents are in autocratic regimes further east, be it Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, and potentially countries that would be inspired by these autocratic regimes.”
He added that as democracies, the US and Europe should be working together for their common interests, while acknowledging that this may be difficult given Trump’s emphasis on prioritising U.S. businesses and industry.
Other political figures were more full-throated in their congratulations. Opposition leader and former PM Andrej Babis said Trump’s campaign had not been stopped by “an attempt at his assassination, nor by politically motivated lawsuits, nor by a systematic media smear campaign,” and that his victory would bring “prosperity to the U.S. and peace to the world.”
ANO deputy chair Karel Havlicek said the election had been won over economic issues and the ability to defend national interests, while the party’s parliamentary leader Alena Schillerova described Trump as a distinguished and strong politician, and said the current times called for such politicians.
Havlicek said he did not expect any major change in relations between the Czech Republic and the U.S. “I had the opportunity to visit Donald Trump at the White House with then-Prime Minister Babis,” he said. “He’s a tough negotiator, but he’s playing predictably from my point of view in terms of defending the interests of the United States.”
Czech far-right leader Tomio Okamura (SPD) told CTK that Trump’s election was “hopeful news for the Czech Republic and the whole world”.
On the progressive side of the political spectrum, the response was more critical. Outgoing Czech Pirate Party leader Ivan Bartos said that, while it should be accepted and respected that U.S. voters had chosen Trump, he was unhappy about Trump’s victory because of his approach to human rights and his values, policies, and methods, adding that he was worried about the impact of Trump’s election on transatlantic relations.
Writing on social media, Bartos, a former deputy prime minister, also said that a big question mark now hangs over support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. “In any case, the role of Europe and the joint action of EU countries will be all the more important now and in the future,” he added.
Pirate MEP Marketa Gregorova told CTK that Trump’s victory raised serious concerns for Europe and the Czech Republic.
“The Czech Republic could be one of the most affected EU states, because of the across-the-board tariffs that the president-elect is threatening,” she said. “His promise to immediately address Russia’s aggression in Ukraine raises questions about whether the U.S. under Trump will continue to help the embattled country.”
She also argued that Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO, and encouragement of Russia to act freely against member states, undermines the credibility of the United States as Europe’s main ally.
Foreign minister Jan Lipavsky, formerly a minister for the Pirates before his resignation last month, said we can expect more pressure from Trump for Europe to take more care for its defence, in a statement provided to CTK by his ministry today.
Lipavsky said he was sceptical that the war in Ukraine could be resolved as quickly as Trump had claimed during the election campaign, and warned of a scenario in which powerful countries would dictate to Ukraine that it should give up part of its territory, comparing this to the 1938 Munich agreement that left Czechoslovakia alone against the expansionist program of Nazi Germany.
Any end-of-war scenario must respect UN principles and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which must also agree to it, he said.
According to Lipavsky, Europe should respond to the clear messages Trump was sending in the campaign, spending more on defence, following the U.S. stance on the Indo-Pacific and China, and ensuring that a trade war does not break out with the U.S.
Czech political scientists who spoke to CTK said Trump was an inscrutable and unpredictable political actor, and the EU must prepare to take more responsibility for its own security and defence, as well as support for Ukraine. However, they mostly did not expect fundamental changes in Czech-US relations.
Martin Jirusek, from the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Masaryk University Faculty of Social Studies, said he did not expect Trump to significantly change US policy towards Israel or Iran. However, he expects less involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, as signalled by Trump during the election campaign.
Petr Bohacek, an analyst at the Association for International Affairs, said Trump can be expected to push for a territorial swap in the Ukraine conflict. If Europe wants Ukraine to win, it will have to support this outcome on its own, or on terms the US will accept. “The question is whether Europe is capable of ensuring that the scenario in Ukraine is not repeated in the Baltics,” he added.
Bohacek also predicted other repercussions for U.S.-European relations, regarding Trump’s support for nationalist and pro-Russian politicians such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He said Europe is harmed by being disunited, to some extent becoming an open-air museum and unable to compete.
Ladislav Mrklas of CEVRO University said that Trump would be ruthless towards Europe on two basic points. The first is the defence spending by NATO member states, which should amount to at least 2% of GDP. “He will not want any compromises and will press allies in this respect. If they don’t comply or don’t comply in a reasonable time, it is possible that Trump will start to withdraw from Europe systematically,” Mrklas said.
As for the second point, he said Trump will urge the EU to make clear where it stands on US-China trade relations. “That may be more difficult because the trade relations of the different countries in Europe are diverse, and coordination and clear support for the United States will be quite difficult,” he said.
As if to underline this point, Slovak PM Robert Fico (Smer-SD) hailed Trump’s victory as “a defeat of liberal, progressivist ideas.” He argued that the U.S. elections confirmed that the media and opinion polls are not to be trusted, and said the media tend to lie and promote an image different to the actual reality.
