German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel says Donald Trump, the US Republican presidential front-runner, is a threat to global peace and economic development.
Gabriel, who is also Germany’s economy minister and leader of the Social Democrats, made the comments in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday.
Comparing Trump to Marine le Pen, the head of France’s far-right National Front (FN) Party, and Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, Gabriel noted, “All these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development.”
The center-left German politician further slammed the right-wing populists views about economy, saying they promise their followers a return to “a fairy-tale world where economic life happens only within the borders of their own nation.”
History has shown that isolated economies have failed to develop, he said, adding, “We have to make the effort to explain how we want to shape globalization in a fair way"
His comments are the latest sign of the European politicians’ concerns about the results of the US presidential vote on November 8 as many in Europe’s powerhouse and elsewhere are watching Trump’s surge toward the Republican presidential nomination following his recent election victories.
Trump has vowed to deport 11 million undocumented workers from the United States and establish a “deportation force” for this purpose.
The New York real-estate mogul has created a furor in the US and around the world by proposing a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States, following a mass shooting in California.
He has called for a database to track Muslims across the United States, and has also said that the US would have "absolutely no choice" but to close down mosques.