![\"Might](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/trump_AP-3-320x200.jpg?v=1730886702\")
\n <\/source><\/picture>\n
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is pictured at an election night watch party, Wednesday, in West Palm Beach, Florida. [AP]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s victory is not just another political event; it marks the end of an era and the dawn of a new one. What\u2019s going to change? Basically the fact that come January, there will be only one rule in the international game of geopolitical chess: Might means right. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will feel the impact of this credo more than anyone else, perhaps, as he will be forced to capitulate to his country\u2019s territorial amputation. Leaders who are widely regarded as being on the wrong side of history will start to believe that they were probably right all along \u2013 with everything that may mean for leaders in Greece\u2019s broader neighborhood, like Turkey\u2019s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israel\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu. The rules and institutions of the post-WWII world will be shaken to their foundations and many will probably collapse \u2013 NATO, international trade agreements, all of it will be tested.<\/p>\n
Weak, stumbling and spoiled, Europe will feel the full force of this change. The incurable romantics believe it will wake up and take notice. I hope their metaphysical optimism comes true, but I think that powerful figures to lead Europe with gumption and vision are the stuff of dreams. The self-satisfied bureaucracy in Brussels has nothing to offer at such a time, while France and Germany are both without strong leadership right now. The issue extends beyond politics. Very few European intellectuals or business leaders surprise and inspire.<\/p>\n
Politics is going to change, as barbarism, vulgarity and aggressive posturing become acceptable, mainstream. Picture the scene of the barbarians who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2020, parading around the streets in triumph after Trump is sworn in. The pendulum is going to swing to the right \u2013 and hard. Meanwhile, in a country like Greece, where it has already gone too far to the left, no one can predict how far to the right it will go. The tendency is already there and it cannot be reversed with handouts and symbolic gestures driven by the latest public opinion polls.<\/p>\n
To a journalist, these are fascinating times. I always envied older colleagues for working in dark times, in wars and crises. And I have always believed that our job is to feel the pulse of society and soberly record the facts, something that has become much harder in the age of social media and absolute barbarism. Our job is also about standing up to this barbarism, of course, because if we also drop the ball, it will just become normalized.<\/p>\n
As a Greek with his country\u2019s best interests at heart, I see a window of opportunity closing in an increasingly unpredictable and violent world. We\u2019re asking Europe to wake up. But we are forgetting that we need to wake up first, here, in our country, and to understand that there is no one to shield us from the new, wild world that is taking shape \u2013 not our protector, America, nor Europe, which is sleepwalking. Our own might is the only thing that will matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n