Donald Trump’s stunning election as the next American president generated as much surprise across the Atlantic as it did in Democratic strongholds on the East and West coasts of the U.S. But for Europeans, Trump’s triumph was only one more aftershock in a year of seismic political upheaval. It began in June, when U.K. voters narrowly elected to leave the European Union. Meanwhile, smaller nations, such as Bulgaria and Estonia, saw their incumbent governments topple before insurgent campaigns, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned after his constitutional reforms failed.
France, Germany and Holland all face elections in 2017. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen in some quarters as the last leader holding the line for free-trading liberal democracy, multilateralism and the erstwhile establishment consensus. Germany’s open-door policy toward Syrian refugees and the December terrorist truck attack in Berlin have undercut her reelection campaign. France and Holland are bracing for serious challenges from far-right candidates: Marine le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands.