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EU fears populist uprising after Trump’s victory: Commentator

Sunday, 13 November 2016 3:12 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 13 November 2016 3:14 PM ]

This file photo shows EU flags in front of the European Commission's building.

The European Union has arranged an emergency meeting over the victory of US President-elect Donald Trump, which shows a bit of concern from the Europeans as to where the relations between the US and EU will be headed.

An author and commentator says the European officials fear a “populist uprising,” which may lead to far-right parties assuming power in EU member states after Trump’s victory.

“So this wave of populism threatens a kind of neoliberal, global, financial, [and] institutional system that has been in power for a while and it is clearly crumbling in some sense, but this is the perception,” John Steppling told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

He also stated that there is an anxiety in the corridors of power that Trump could disrupt things a bit.

“This [anxiety] is coming from people like Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourgish Minister to the EU, from leaders of financial capital in Europe and from NATO; there is a worry that Trump will demand NATO allies contribute more money to their own protection and so forth, which raises the question of exactly who Europe is worried might invade them,” he said.

Steppling further opined that Trump’s contradiction is the main reason behind the anxiety expressed about him, adding that he is a businessman, who always looks at the bottom line before ideology.

He also argued that the people who Donald Trump will choose for his cabinet may not be “terribly different” from who Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would have picked.

“He [Trump] says things that suggest an open willingness to work with Russia, that he is kind of anti-NATO, he does not want to fight all these foreign wars, because to him the cost-benefit ratio is not very good,” he stated.

“But then he goes and suggests cabinet posts will be filled by the likes of Bob Corker, James Woolsey, and Jefferson Sessions who are absolute ideological hawks. These are neocons hawks and warmongers,” he added.

Trump stunned the world by defeating Hillary Clinton in the November 8 presidential election, sending the United States on a new, uncertain path.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk