Former US Ambassador Peter Galbraith commented on possible consequences of Donald Trump’s win for Croatia.
Croatia will have to fully focus on the European Union and will no longer be able to count on the United States. Serbia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina will in turn get “America under the leadership of Russia”. That was a comment made by former US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith a day after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, reports Večernji List on November 10, 2016.
Trump’s win demonstrates shortcomings of the US electoral system and opens the door to further politicization of the judiciary – these are just some of negative and almost apocalyptic forecasts made by the former Ambassador, a member of the Democratic Party. He admitted that Trump’s victory speech was more restrained, but it still remains to be seen whether he would follow policies which he talked about during the campaign.
Galbraith said he was not sure what kind of relation would Croatia and the United States have in the future. “Trump admires Russian President Vladimir Putin and sees Russia as a natural ally of the United States. He wants to dissolve NATO. He says he will terminate the nuclear agreement with Iran, but does not say what he will replace it with. He says he will annul trade deals and propose fiscal policies which would triple the deficit. The global recession is one possibility. Tacit recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea is the second”, said Galbraith.
With Hillary Clinton, we would know what to expect in relation to Europe, including Croatia and the region of Southeast Europe, but it is not known what Trump will do. Nevertheless, Galbraith’s forecast is gloomy. “If he implements all that he talked about, such as a trade war with China, the abolition of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), deportation of immigrants, and tax cuts, he will start a global recession that will affect Croatia as well”, added Galbraith.
Politically, Croatia will no longer be able to count on the United States and it is time to focus completely on Brussels, he added. However, he sees even worse problems in the Croatian neighbourhood, especially due to Russian influence that, without American counterweight, is becoming ever more stronger. “Serbia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina will get America under the leadership of Russia”, said Galbraith.
He added that Trump’s victory would represent a problem within the United States as well. “For now, it seems that Hillary Clinton has won more votes than Trump. For the second time in the last five elections, the Republican candidate gets less votes than the Democratic one, but becomes president. This in turn raises questions about the sustainability of American democracy”, said Galbraith, alluding to the fact that in 2000 Al Gore won more votes than Republican George W. Bush.
