{"text":[[{"start":16.22,"text":"European politicians hailed Donald Trump’s sweeping defeat in the US midterm elections on Wednesday as a chance to moderate fractious transatlantic relations, with Spain’s prime minister cheering the results as the “crumbling” of a “far-right wave”."}],[{"start":30.895,"text":"The US president’s first two years of his second term have deeply undermined relations with Europe, as his mercurial attitude to Nato, trade war against Brussels and pro-Russian stance towards the war in Ukraine upended decades of transatlantic beliefs on the continent."}],[{"start":47.16,"text":"Politicians from across the EU’s centrist and leftwing parties cheered the Democratic victory that hands Trump’s opponents control of Congress. However, they were split over its potential impact on foreign policy, cautioning that Europe should not temper efforts to de-risk its reliance on Washington."}],[{"start":63.68,"text":"Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has been Trump’s most vocal critic among EU leaders, presented the Republican defeat as a positive sign for his own fight for re-election this month. “The far-right wave is no longer growing,” he said. “It is crumbling.”"}],[{"start":78.64,"text":"“Yesterday, American society voted against policies that only make people poorer. Against hatred. Against machismo. Against climate change denial and the privileges of the elites,” Sánchez wrote on X. “It happened in Brazil. It has just happened in the US. And it will happen soon in Spain.”"}],[{"start":97.16,"text":"Sánchez faces an uphill battle to stay in office as polls show the mainstream conservative People’s Party and far-right Vox are on course to secure a right-of-centre majority in parliament."}],[{"start":107.36,"text":"UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the election results meant “the world has an opportunity now” to focus on an end to the US-Iran war and tackling high costs of living."}],[{"start":117.4,"text":"“I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved,” Burnham told reporters at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda. “These are the things we have to focus on now and I hope the world has a moment to do that."}],[{"start":132.48,"text":"“That’s what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States — let’s get focused in a laser-like way on those cost-of-living issues,” Burnham added."}],[{"start":141.16,"text":"Germany’s centre-right chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he expected Trump to continue conducting policy by executive orders. “Trump has spent the last two years governing by bypassing Congress; why should things be any different now?” Merz told a conference in Berlin on Wednesday. “He has relied on executive orders for the most part, and he intends to continue doing so.”"}],[{"start":161.72,"text":"German finance minister Lars Klingbeil, who is also the co-leader of the country’s Social Democrats (SPD), said “rightwing populists” and “authoritarian forces” had been defeated in the US midterms."}],[{"start":173.04,"text":"Klingbeil said his country would reach out to US Democrats, as well as to the “reasonable forces” in the Republican Party, to get rid of trade tariffs, stop Washington’s “nonsensical war in Iran” and help Ukraine against Russian aggression."}],[{"start":186.48,"text":"The leader of the EU’s centre-left political grouping — the second-largest bloc in the European parliament — said the election result was “not only a vote for checks and balances. It is a vote for change. Americans have rejected [Trump’s] agenda.”"}],[{"start":200.2,"text":"Stefan Löfven, president of the Party of European Socialists, added that the result was “a chance to return American democracy to normal”."}],[{"start":207.52,"text":"“Congress now has a mandate to do its job: to scrutinise, legislate and hold the president to account,” he said."}],[{"start":215.52,"text":"Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius, also a member of Germany’s centre-left SPD party, offered “congratulations to the Democrats” but pledged that Berlin would “continue to work closely and in a spirit of trust with the [Trump] administration”."}],[{"start":229,"text":"Since Trump returned to office, European Nato allies have drastically increased defence spending and investment in key capabilities which they currently rely on the US for, such as military satellites and long-range weapons. The EU has also signed a swath of new trade deals with non-western countries, and is seeking to implement “Buy European” policies in specific industrial areas."}],[{"start":250.6,"text":"Sandro Gozi, secretary-general of the pan-EU liberal EDP group, said that regardless of who was in power in the US, Europe needed to strengthen its autonomy."}],[{"start":259.72,"text":"“What we increasingly hope will prove to be a passing chapter in American foreign policy must nevertheless leave Europeans with an enduring lesson: Europe must become stronger, more united and more sovereign, capable of standing firm through any political storm and defending its interests and values, regardless of who occupies the White House,” Gozi said."}],[{"start":280.56,"text":"Senior politicians from Merz’s ruling conservative party expressed optimism that a Democratic Congress would have a “moderating effect” on Trump’s foreign policy after months of transatlantic tensions."}],[{"start":291.28,"text":"“The scale of Donald Trump’s defeat and the Democrats’ large majorities in both houses of Congress could, with all due caution, have a moderating effect on the president’s foreign policy as well,” senior CDU MP and foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen told the FT."}],[{"start":307.44,"text":"“Siding with Moscow or massively escalating the war against Iran militarily would face clear and substantial opposition in Congress,” Röttgen added. “Nothing about Trump can be predicted, but new opportunities are opening up for German and European foreign policy both to pursue our security interests by supporting Ukraine and to sustain a functioning transatlantic relationship.”"}],[{"start":327.44,"text":"Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul said he was “somewhat optimistic that there will now be more talks between the two parties in Congress in terms of what can be done to support Ukraine”."}],[{"start":337.96,"text":"But Trump’s ambassador to Nato cautioned against those expecting a shift in US diplomacy."}],[{"start":342.56,"text":"“The foreign policy of the United States has not changed. And we shouldn’t expect that it would change in a midterm election,” said Matthew Whitaker. “The issues that we’re facing, as a country and as an alliance, are the same.”"}],[{"start":343.06,"text":"Additional reporting by Aysun Bora"}],[{"start":359.84,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793854497_7378.mp3"}