The EU must stand up to 'belligerence' from incoming Trump administration - analysts

Two experts have told Euronews that the EU must ready itself to stand firm in the face of belligerence from an incoming Donald Trump regime.  

Demands by some in Trump's team for Europe to water down or abandon important social media regulations would weaken democracy and "won't guarantee Europe's security in the long run", according to think tank Bruegel's Guntram Wolff and the European Policy Centre's Georg Riekeles.

“We were all taken aback by how aggressive both Musk and Donald Trump have been in this first half of January, really not attacking Russia or China, but really attacking allies verbally,” ULB Professor of Economics at Guntram Wolff told Euronews’ Europe Conversation.

“Elon Musk has had a huge campaign against the UK’s current sitting government and that has raised alarm bells all across Europe,” he said.

Both experts said the European Commission should confront Musk and other social media outlets if and when instances of a breach of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) occur and are deemed a genuine threat to European democracy or society.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is the EU’s key legal tool for monitoring social media outlets for disinformation and harmful content.

Elon Musk has reignited a political debate in the UK around the crimes of gangs of men who systemically groomed and raped children in English towns over several decades. 

In a flurry of posts on his social platform X, the billionaire has taken aim at senior UK Labour figures, claiming prime minister Keir Starmer was "deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes.”

He also called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and called for her to be imprisoned.

A spokesperson for the European Commission has said it is