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- How France Prepared for Trump | Insights from If You're Listening Podcast by ABC In-depth
How France Prepared for Trump | Insights from If You're Listening Podcast by ABC In-depth
Discover how France spent decades preparing for Trump on the If You're Listening podcast by ABC In-depth. Explore insights on election night coverage and the efficiency of German political events.
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Video Transcript
One of the things that sucks about election night coverage pretty much everywhere
is this bit.
So we should be hearing from the Prime Minister pretty soon.
Obviously we're still waiting to hear from Kamala Harris.
It's the bit where the result seems pretty clear
but you've got to wait around for ages until the leaders do their speeches.
And we're waiting to see John Trump appear himself
and that's obviously what the crowd there are waiting to see.
Well this bit doesn't happen in Germany.
All this waiting around is way too inefficient for the Germans.
They bring all the party leaders into one room at 8 o'clock on election night
and make them answer questions about the race.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Good evening everyone.
When this chat was underway during the election just last month
it was pretty clear that opposition leader Friedrich Merz
was going to be the next chancellor.
And he decided to start his transition into office with a bang.
Union will have absolute priority for me as soon as possible.
He says my absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible
so that step by step we can really achieve independence from the USA.
It's clear that the Trump administration is largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.
People were stunned.
Usually a German leader needs to be at least three schnapps deep
before they start heckling their most important security partner.
But Germany could no longer afford to ignore Trump's actions since taking office.
forcing Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, threatening to annex Greenland,
and saying that US allies have to pay up if they want US protection.
No, I won't protect if you're not paying.
If you're delinquent or if the money isn't paid, why would we do that?
One person who would not have been surprised at all by what Trump is doing
is the French statesman Charles de Gaulle.
The dominant figure in 20th century French politics,
de Gaulle thought it was only a matter of time before America would become, as the Chancellor says,
indifferent to the fate of Europe.
Now, America's allies are calling France and asking two questions.
One, how did you see this coming?
And two, can you protect us from a rising Russia and China if America won't?
I'm interested in finding answers to these questions too.
I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You're Listening.
This is the sound of desperation.
It was mid-1940 and German forces were at the gates of Paris, and the French Prime Minister
Paul Reynaud took to the airwaves to beg America for help.
He had already failed in his attempt to get the US to join the war against Germany, and
now he was begging for a cloud of planes.
to be sent to stop the Nazis.
The suffering is the pride of the land.
Planes had been promised, but they weren't ready in time.
America would not save France.
