From Germany to Australia, how Trump's second term is impacting elections around the world
WASHINGTON - This weekend, Australia joined a growing list of countries that held elections profoundly influenced by the foreign policy and rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Australia's center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won a second term on Saturday after months of trailing in the polls. While other factors played a role in his victory, analysts said Trump's tariffs on Australia appear to have improved the party's prospects , in line with Monday's election results in Canada , where voters seeking a response to Trump elected Mark Carney .
From Germany to Greenland, the American president has become a key factor in global electoral politics, as some voters' core concerns have been forced to answer a new question: Who is best to challenge Trump?
After leading the polls for six months as the Australian election approached on May 3, conservative candidate Peter Dutton slipped behind. On Saturday, Labor won a landslide victory , consolidating a parliamentary majority that included taking Dutton's seat—a historic defeat for an opposition leader in an Australian federal election.
At times, Dutton seemed to emulate Trump: a former detective and a hawk on Chinese foreign policy, Dutton promised that if he became prime minister, he would address government inefficiency , echoing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) launched by Trump and Elon Musk. He also promised to drastically cut “diversity and cultural inclusion” initiatives in government and schools , similar to Trump’s crackdown on such programs.
But Trump's reputation in Australia plummeted when he imposed his own steep tariffs globally — including a 10 percent tariff on goods from his longtime ally — and Dutton's support fell along with Trump's, analysts told The Washington Post .
Following the massive disruption to the global trading system caused by tariffs, Albanese surged in the polls.
“That’s not how friends act,” Albanese said when Australia was hit by Trump’s tariff.
In his victory speech on Saturday, Albanese alluded to Dutton's failure.
“We don't need to borrow or copy models from anywhere,” said the re-elected prime minister. “We don't look to foreign countries for inspiration. We find it right here, in our values and our people.”
In April, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party swept to victory , overcoming a deficit of more than 20 points in the polls , a surge fueled in part by Trump's trade war and threats of annexation.
“As I’ve been warning for months, the United States wants our land, our resources, our water, our country ,” Carney declared in his victory speech. “And these aren’t mere threats: President Trump is trying to break us so the United States can take us over.”
Trump repeatedly threatened to make Canada the 51st state of the United States and announced tariffs on some of Canada's largest exports. On the morning of Election Day in Canada, Trump wished Canadians "good luck" in a social media post and took the opportunity to repeat his threat to annex the country.
Until a few months before the April 28 election, polls favored Pierre Poilievre , a career politician and right-wing populist who had once declared war on wokeism . But as Trump's aggressive foreign policy angered many Canadians, his similarities with Trump worked against him. Within months, Trump's tariffs and the reference to the "51st state" altered the tone of Canadian politics and paved the way for a resurgence of Canadian nationalism.
Meanwhile, Carney, a former central bank governor who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister after his resignation in March, capitalized on Canadians' concerns about Trump, knowing many were looking for someone who could protect their country from the American leader, according to The Washington Post .
Less than three months before the Greenland elections, and before taking office, Trump claimed the semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark for the United States, posting on social media: “For reasons of national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America deems it an absolute necessity to own and control Greenland.”
Weeks later, he reiterated his desire to stay in Greenland, writing: “Greenland is an amazing place, and its people will benefit greatly if and when it becomes part of our nation. We will protect and cherish it from a very cruel outside world. Let’s Make Greenland Great Again!”
His comments drew unprecedented attention to Greenland's elections, which have rarely been the focus of international attention. Mute Egede, then Greenland's prime minister, emphasized that Greenland "is not for sale. " Parliament banned political parties from receiving contributions "from foreign or anonymous contributors," a measure intended to protect the integrity of politics. And in a final debate, days before Greenland was to elect a new government, the leaders of all five parties in Parliament expressed their unanimous distrust of Trump.
And Trump’s threats remain a focal point for Greenland’s leaders: This month, newly sworn-in Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen emphasized that Greenland “will never, ever be a property that can be bought by anyone.”
Before the German elections, Trump administration officials openly supported the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which German intelligence later classified as an extremist organization.
On December 20, Elon Musk, the billionaire White House appointee to lead DOGE, wrote that “only the AfD can save Germany.” On his social media platform, X, he promoted the AfD more than 70 times to his 218 million followers, magnifying the party’s social media reach. And current Vice President J.D. Vance became the highest-ranking US official to meet with AfD leader Alice Weidel, proposing in a speech to export MAGA politics to Europe.
German leaders were outraged and accused the Trump administration of interfering in domestic affairs less than 10 days before the national election. The previously marginal AfD, which had been gaining ground well before Trump's return to power, came in second, with more than 20% of the vote .
Europe needs to "gradually separate itself from the United States," declared Friedrich Merz, the conservative Christian Democrat who will become the next chancellor, after the election.
The international electoral reaction to Trump's return has not only been against him.
In the UK , the right-wing, anti-immigration Reform party has sought to balance criticism of Trump with attempts to tap into the similar undercurrent that catapulted him to power. Reform made historic gains in local elections this week , and the party's founder, Nigel Farage, who championed Britain's pro-Brexit vote, is now aligned with Trump.
In Romania , ultranationalist George Simion is one of the favorites to win this weekend's presidential rerun. Simion has already expressed support for Trump's MAGA movement.
In Ecuador , President Daniel Noboa won re-election this month and may have received a boost from his seemingly friendly relationship with Trump, Ecuadorian political analyst Caroline Ávila told The Washington Post .
And there are elections looming: South Korea will elect a president in June, and Japan is scheduled to hold elections for its House of Councilors in July. The domestic politics of these two key US allies could also be affected by the impact of Trump's tariffs.
By Anumita Kaur
(Translation by Jaime Arrambide)
lanacion
