The success of the populist discourse of Republican candidate and US president-elect Donald Trump is bad news for Spain, the European Union, and NATO, an analysis by a foundation linked to the Spanish People’s Party (PP) warned on Wednesday.

According to a flash study published on Wednesday by the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (FAES), chaired by former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar (Partido Popular/EPP), the success of Trump’s populist discourse would negatively affect Western democracies.

In its analysis, FAES says that the impact of the US election and Trump’s victory could have global repercussions “because the winner (Trump) claims to want to shed the purple weight that such global leadership entails”.

“In this sense, the success of the discourse that Trump embodies is not good news either for Spain or for the European Union as a whole, or NATO: a populism marinated in protectionist, isolationist approaches”, says the foundation linked to PP the main opposition force to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D).

On the other hand, the FAES flash study recalls Trump’s “intemperate attitudes”, “which have even become an institutional challenge, encouraging nothing less than an attack on the Capitol”.

The study also points out that the Republican leader embodies “a lack of decency that is very fashionable around the world” about the far right.

“What is said, according to this (populist) pattern, often has little to do with what is done and even less to do with what is thought, if anything at all. That is why it is so difficult to make predictions about the course of action of unpredictable demagogues”, FAES added, EFE reported.

Even if Trump fulfils his electoral promises, it would be a very dark period for expectations of victory or a reasonable solution to the war in Ukraine, the study added, in addition to the fact that the future president is also keen on tariffs, referring to a new trade war.

“European industry, the automotive sector, and legal certainty in trade will suffer the consequences (of Trump’s protectionist attitude) even more than they did before”, the study also warned.

In the foundation’s opinion, perhaps the most hopeful aspect of Trump’s latest victory is that although he will return to the White House, the US Constitution prevents him from running for a third term, and his party will have to find a new leader.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)