The outgoing US ambassador to the European Union on Friday warned President-elect Donald Trump's administration of supporting the bloc's breakup, saying it would be "sheer folly."
"To think that by supporting the fragmentation of Europe we would be advancing our interests would be sheer folly. It is lunacy," said US Ambassador Anthony Gardner at a final press conference.
Gardner, appointed by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2014, said Trump's transition team asked several EU officials which country is likely to exit the bloc next.
"That was the one question that was asked, basically what is the next country to leave, which is kind of suggesting the place is about to fall apart," Gardner said.
"It's a perception that Nigel Farage is presumably disseminating in Washington. And it's a caricature," he added, referring to the European parliamentarian from the UK who led the pro-Leave campaign ahead of Britain's referendum on whether to leave the EU in June 2016.
Farage, who stepped down as head of the UK Independent Party (UKIP) after the referendum, was the first British politician to meet with Trump after his victory in November's US presidential elections.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Frauke Petry, Alternative for Germany (AfD)
The leader of the Alternative for Germany, Frauke Petry, said police could use guns as a last resort to prevent illegal border crossings, pointing out "that's the law." What began as a euroskeptic party has turned into an anti-establishment and anti-EU force, claiming up to 25 percent of votes in German state elections in March 2016 and taking second place in Chancellor Angela Merkel's home state.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Marine Le Pen, National Front (France)
Many believe Brexit and Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections could give new impetus to France's National Front. Established in 1972 and now led by Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011, the National Front is a nationalist party that uses populist rhetoric to promote its anti-immigration and anti-EU positions.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Geert Wilders, Party for Freedom (The Netherlands)
The leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, is one of Europe's most prominent right-wing politicians. He was convicted in December for asking a crowd in 2014 if they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the country, but no penalty was imposed. His party is considered anti-EU and anti-Islam. It is leading polls ahead of next year's parliamentary elections and currently holds 15 seats.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Nikos Michaloliakos, Golden Dawn (Greece)
Nikos Michaloliakos is the head of Greece's neo-fascist party Golden Dawn. He was arrested in September 2013 along with dozens of other party members and charged with forming a criminal organization. Michaloliakos was released in July 2015. Golden Dawn won 18 seats in parliamentary elections in September 2016. The party holds anti-immigrant views and favors a defense agreement with Russia.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Gabor Vona, Jobbik (Hungary)
Hungary's anti-immigration, populist and economic protectionist party Jobbik aspires to be in the government by 2018. Now Hungary's third-largest party, it won 20 percent of votes in the last elections held in 2014. It wants a referendum on EU membership. Jobbik also advocates criminalizing "sexual deviancy," submitting a bill targeting homosexuals in 2012. Jobbik is headed by Gabor Vona.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Jimmie Akesson, Sweden Democrats
After Trump's election, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson said in an interview with Swedish TV: "There is a movement in both Europe and the United States where the establishment is being challenged. It is clearly happening here as well." The Sweden Democrats call for restricting immigration, are against allowing Turkey to join the EU and want a referendum on EU membership.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Norbert Hofer, Freedom Party (Austria)
Norbert Hofer of Austria's nationalist Freedom Party lost the recent presidential runoff by a mere 30,000 votes, after being front-runner in the first round. Former Green party leader Alexander Van der Bellen won 50.3 percent of the vote, with Hofer gaining 49.7 percent. The Freedom Party's leader campaigns for the strengthening of the country's borders and limiting benefits for immigrants.
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How radical is Europe's right?
Marian Kotleba, People's Party - Our Slovakia
The leader of the hard-right People's Party - Our Slovakia, Marian Kotleba, has said, "Even one immigrant is one too many." On another occasion, he called NATO a "criminal organization." This Slovak party favors leaving the EU as well as the eurozone. It won 8 percent of the vote in March 2016 elections, securing 14 seats in the country's 150-member parliament.
Gardner: 'I hope Germany passes the message'
Garnder called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with other European leaders who have influence, to ensure Trump's administration understands the EU stands together for the bloc's cohesion and integrity.
"I hope that Germany passes the message to the new US team: 'Don't think about splitting the EU, one member state from another,'" he said.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said the EU should not be so "naive always to rely on others who would solve the problems in our neighborhood," referring to the United States.
"From the point of view of some of our traditional partners - and I am thinking here as well about transatlantic relations - there is no eternal guarantee for a close cooperation with us Europeans," Merkel said after receiving honorary doctorate degrees from Belgian universities.
She called on EU member states to remain unified ahead of the challenges posed by Brexit and an increasingly fractured political landscape across the bloc.
Since the shock decision by a tight majority of British voters to leave the bloc, the EU has witnessed an empowered euro-skeptic movement in France, Italy and Germany.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Taking her first oath
"I want to serve Germany." This was Merkel's promise during her campaign to become chancellor. After a very narrow election win, her moment came on November 22, 2005. Merkel was sworn in as the first female chancellor and the first from former East Germany. She became head of a grand coalition government combining her Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the defeated Social Democrats (SPD).
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Who's afraid of Putin's pooch?
On the foreign policy front, Merkel had to face a powerful adversary. She is known for her steady nerves. But Vladimir Putin apparently wanted to test the chancellor's limits when he received her in 2007. He soon found Merkel's weakness: the chancellor is afraid of dogs. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Putin's late labrador, Konni (or Connie Paulgrave), was put on a long leash.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Rainy day funds
Merkel usually keeps her cool - which has often helped her during crises. When financial markets collapsed in 2008 and the German economy was being pulled down with them, Merkel took action. Later, she was closely involved in constructing the eurozone's rescue funds. Broadly speaking, Germany emerged unscathed. But Merkel's austerity measures were felt by others, especially Greeks and Spaniards.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
A second term, with the desired coalition
Despite achieving the second-worst post-war electoral result for the CDU/CSU, the parliamentary elections on 27th September 2009 were a victory for Merkel. After the unwelcome grand coalition with the Social Democrats, she was now able to govern with her preferred partner, the pro-business liberals from the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Quick to pull the plug
As a physics graduate, Merkel reputedly plans by starting at the end. Yet she couldn't predict the nuclear disaster in high-tech Japan. The 2011 Fukushima accident transformed the atomic energy supporter into an opponent overnight. The recently-approved extensions to German nuclear reactors' running time were quickly canceled. Contrary to her manifesto, Germany would stop producing nuclear power.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Germany's low-key 'First Man'
Would anyone recognize him? Would they know his voice? During Merkel's 10 years in power, her husband, Joachim Sauer, has passed almost unnoticed. The professor for physical and theoretical chemistry at Berlin's Humboldt University married Merkel in 1998. When his wife is on official business, he discretely stays in the background. But in their private lives, the reverse sometimes seems to apply.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
NSA: friendship put to the test
A racy affair. When close ally the US, of all countries, was found to be intercepting top German politicians' phone calls. Even Merkel's cell phone was not safe from the secret service. Merkel took her time in commenting on the revelations about the wiretapped phones - a domestic and foreign policy disaster for her. One comment stuck in the memory: "Listening in on friends - that's just not on!"
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
The Greek patient
Merkel has a large global fan base, but it is somewhat smaller in Greece. Nowhere has she been so demonized as in Greece during the peak of the eurozone's sovereign debt difficulties. Old animosities were rekindled, but the chancellor stayed firm: save, introduce economic reform, bring in cuts - these were her demands of the government in Athens.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Emotional, at least once
A controlled woman known for her minimal gestures and facial expressions, she could not keep to official protocol and its dictated restraints at the World Cup Final in Rio - happily cheering together with President Joachim Gauck. She was at the high point of her popularity and so was the German national football team. These two have been highly influential in shaping Germany's international image.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
We can do this...can't we?
Had Merkel found her calling? As hundreds of thousands of refugees came to Germany via the Balkans, the chancellor said that asylum law knows no upper limits. "We can do this!" was Merkel's credo during the refugee crisis. She claimed to have a plan. But in the meantime, many Germans are questioning: "Can we do this?" It remains an open question.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
What's next, Mrs. Merkel?
It was on a Friday the 13th - November's 2015 massacre in Paris. France declared a state of emergency. Angela Merkel offered her neighbors "full support." Fear of terrorism was rampant. Without question, she was confronted with her greatest challenge to date on the tenth anniversary of her tenure.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
With friends like these...
At the CSU party convention in November 2015, the chancellor was dragged over the coals by her Bavarian allies. Horst Seehofer took Merkel to task - accusing her of losing control of the borders with her refugee policies. It was a humiliation that Merkel had to endure standing up, without any chance to respond.
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On track for a fourth term as chancellor
Couldn't he stay a little longer?
Merkel might have welcomed a third Barack Obama term. At first, she was skeptical of him. The NSA scandal with her tapped cell phone was reason enough for her to hold something back. But now a reliable partner is leaving the political stage to make way for Donald Trump. The "New York Times" has since called Merkel "the liberal West's last defender."
Author: Volker Wagener, Max Zander
ls/sms (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
