Donald Trump‘s US election victory dominated German headlines on Wednesday and Thursday, even as the country faced its own domestic political crisis.
The election was seen as a referendum on issues like migration and economic policy at home, but also pivotal for geopolitical issues around the world.
Germany‘s most widely-read tabloid Bild said the election outcome was “the last warning signal for our government” as it attempts to overcome voters’ grievances similar to those in the US. The front page of the paper’s Thursday edition read:
The will of the people
Much of Germany’s media was focused on contextualizing Trump’s victory for readers in a country where he is deeply unpopular.
An opinion poll held days before the vote found that 74% of Germans supported Kamala Harris whereas only 11% supported Trump.
Yet Trump was “exactly the man that Americans wanted,” according to one of Germany’s newspapers of record, the center-left, Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).
“They want Trump,” added the US correspondent for the center-left magazine Der Spiegel.
In another SZ article about the makeup of the incoming Trump administration, the newspaper also declared that “one of the most powerful people in the world will soon be Elon Musk.”
What Trump’s win means for Germany
Bild attempted to decipher the “hidden meanings” of different world leaders’ congratulations messages to Trump.
It said Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s message signaled to Germans that he wanted to “avoid the impression that closeness and sympathy for Biden could stand in the way of future German-American relations.”
National broadcaster ARD’s flagship news program, Tagesschau, said on its website that “the outcome of the US election is likely to mean further shocks for German politics.”
It also said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was concerned about Trump’s unwillingness to support Ukraine going forward.
Tagesschau pointed to one lone reaction that “stood out among the worried and critical voices” in Germany. The leader of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), said Trump’s victory was a clear statement against immigration, economic decline and “misguided climate ideology.”
A sense of impending doom
Other newspapers were more blunt.
“Why though?” was asked by the left-wing newspaper Die Tageszeitung, using the English phrase for a headline at the top of its homepage.
Die Zeit, a centrist, weekly paper, also ran an article in its online edition with a single, uncensored English word as its headline: “F—.”
In the article, the author compared their experience watching the US election to seeing a mushroom cloud on the horizon.
“When Trump was president last time, he could not stop raving about the size, power and functionality of his red button,” the author added.
On the same website, other articles about Trump’s win had titles including “The nightmare” and “Now he can do what he wants.”
Trump is set to be inaugurated on January 20.