By Sarah Marsh and Elizabeth Pineau
BERLIN/PARIS/, Jan 21 (Reuters) – European far-right and populist parties that once cheered on Donald Trump and gained in standing through his praise are now distancing themselves from the U.S. president over his military incursion into Venezuela and bid for Greenland.
The Trump administration has repeatedly backed far-right European parties that share a similar stance on issues from immigration to climate change, helping legitimize movements that have long faced stigma at home but are now on the rise.
The new U.S. National Security Strategy issued last month said “the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
But those parties now face a dilemma as disapproval of Trump rises across the continent over his increasingly aggressive foreign policy moves and in particular his efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
GERMANY’S AFD BERATES TRUMP
“Donald Trump has violated a fundamental campaign promise — namely, not to interfere in other countries,” Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany said, while party co-leader Tino Chrupalla rejected “Wild West methods”.
The AfD has been cultivating ties with Trump’s administration – but polls suggest this may no longer be beneficial. A survey by pollster Forsa released on Tuesday showed 71% of Germans see Trump more as an opponent than an ally.
Wariness of Trump has grown since he vowed on Saturday to slap tariffs on a raft of EU countries including Germany, France, Sweden and Britain, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.
Those countries had last week sent military personnel to the vast Arctic island at Denmark’s request.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said on Tuesday Europe must react, referring to “anti-coercion measures” and the suspension of the economic agreement signed last year between the EU and the United States.
British populist party Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage has long feted his close ties with Trump, said it was hard to tell if the president was bluffing.
“But to use economic threats against the country that’s been considered to be your closest ally for over a hundred years is not the kind of thing we would expect,” Reform said in a statement published on Jan. 19.
Blunter still was Mattias Karlsson, often cited as chief ideologist of the far-right Sweden Democrats.
“Trump is increasingly resembling a reversed King Midas,” he wrote on X. “Everything he touches turns to shit.”
Political scientist Johannes Hillje said it would always be hard for nationalists to forge a common foreign policy “because the national interests do not always converge.”
KEEPING OUT OF THE FRAY
Not all European far-right and populist parties have been so critical. Some, like the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom and Spanish Vox, praised Trump for removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yet kept silent on his Greenland threats.
Others, such as Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the nationalist government of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban have called for the issue of Greenland to be settled bilaterally between the United States and Denmark.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis posted a video on social networks on Tuesday in which he brandished a map and a globe to show how big Greenland was and how close it was to Russia if it were to send a missile.
“The U.S. has a long-term interest in Greenland, it is not just an initiative of Donald Trump now,” he said, calling for a diplomatic resolution.
MILD CRITICISM FROM MELONI
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is seen as one of the closest European leaders to Trump, said his decision to slap tariffs on European allies was a “mistake”.
“I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think,” she said on Sunday, adding that she thought there was “a problem of understanding and communication” between Washington and Europe. She has not said anything since, but Italian media have said she is against slapping tariffs on the U.S. in response and is instead seeking to defuse the crisis with talks.
However, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, blamed the renewed trade tensions on the European nations who dispatched soldiers to Greenland.
“The eagerness to announce the dispatch of troops here and there is now bearing its bitter fruit,” he wrote on X.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Crispian Balmer in Rome, Jesus Calero in Madrid, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Jan Lopatka in Prague and Krisztina Than in Budapest, Elizabeth Piper in London and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris)
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