Politics

WHY EUROPE'S POPULIST REVOLT IS SPREADING

As Newsweek’s Josh Lowe and Owen Matthews report in this week's cover story, the evidence of an international populist surge has grown since then. Trump’s victory has made it harder for centrists to close their eyes and hope nationalism will just disappear. His triumph was a shock in many ways, but one of the most sobering aspects of it is his warmth toward prominent authoritarian leaders and foreign politicians with alarming views. Trump’s counterparts in Europe, long confined to the margins of politics, will watch with admiration as Trump, soon to be the world’s most powerful person, takes office on January 20.The 45th U.S. president will have a growing number of like-minded company at marquee meetings like the G-20 and the U.N. General Assembly, where the power players have, in recent years, been centrists like U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. If the National Front’s Marine Le Pen wins the French presidential election in May, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council would be led by Trump, Le Pen, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and Britain’s Theresa May, who is ushering the U.K. out of the EU (even though she campaigned, tepidly, for it to remain). With the possible exception of May, none seem thrilled about how the world has worked since the end of the Cold War.