Belinsky Andrey Victorovich – Ph.D. in Political Sciences, Senior Researcher, INION RAS
The article examines the reactions of the leading political parties in Germany to the 2024 US presidential election. It is noted that throughout the election campaign, the majority of German politicians had a negative attitude towards D. Trump’s candidacy, as they saw him as a direct threat to both the country’s national interests and the Euro-Atlantic cooperation in general. At the same time, the approaches of main political forces to the election of the American billionaire to the highest US government post differed from each other. While the Christian Democrats led by F. Merz, guided by the principle of realism, in relation to the Republican administration of D. Trump relied on a «dual strategy» (cooperation in security issues, fight against customs policy), the parties of the «traffic light» government coalition (SPD, Alliance 90/TheGreens, partly FDP) unequivocally supported the candidate from the Democratic Party K. Harris. The defeat of the Democrats in the presidential elections was a heavy blow for Chancellor O. Scholz and his government colleagues. For the left-wing forces (The Left, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance), the foreign policy agenda plays a rather secondary role, but they also spoke out with sharp criticism of D. Trump. The right-wing populist party «Alternative for Germany» took a special position: in its case, support for the Republican Party candidate was dictated by both internal and external motives. The author points out that the results of the US elections have become even more significant for German political parties after the collapse of the government coalition and early parliamentary elections in February 2025.
D. Trump, J. Biden, K. Harris, Germany, CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, «Alternative for Germany», Alliance 90/The Greens, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.
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