Top EU Official Says Kamala Harris “Would Never Win An Election”

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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

US Vice President Kamala Harris is the favorite to become the Democratic nominee to take on Donald Trump in November’s election following Joe Biden’s withdrawal, something the European Union was certainly not expecting, let alone prepared for, which raises the question of what the Europeans can now expect. Harris’s rise as the Democrats’ leading potential presidential candidate coincides with the revelation that a top EU official believes she “would never win an election.”

“Speaking candidly, centrist European politicians and officials suggested Harris has yet to convince them she can beat him,” Politico reported on July 22.

The Europeans are not optimistic that Harris can overcome Trump, and judging by past statements, she has never been a popular figure in the Old World.

Isabel Schnabel, an executive board member of the European Central Bank, in a private conversation but unaware that her remarks were being live-streamed ahead of a panel event in February, slammed Harris for being “invisible” and predicted that she would never win an election.

“They should have built up another candidate to Kamala Harris from the beginning. She would never win an election, I mean that’s hopeless. I don’t even know her because she has been so invisible,” Schnabel said.

Although Schnabel expressed that the Democrats should have built up another candidate, one senior EU official told Politico that there are beliefs that the bloc should have made concerted efforts to build relations with the vice president.

“There is an argument that the EU should have made more of an effort to cultivate relations with Harris, given Biden’s age. But on the other hand, she didn’t exactly make that easy. It wasn’t easy to find occasions to meet Harris,” the official said.

It is recalled that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, recently re-elected for another five-year term, has held only one bilateral meeting with the US vice president. This was on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in 2022, demonstrating how “it wasn’t easy to find occasions to meet Harris.”

Harris’s underwhelming impression on the European bloc is also shared by the United Kingdom, with the leading Democrat candidate leaving an overall bad impression in London.

Politico cited one British source describing Harris’ late arrival on stage to presidential music at a UK artificial intelligence conference last year as “banal” and her speech contradictory to the conference’s theme.

“The British government, then led by Rishi Sunak, spun the VP’s involvement as a positive, but in private was unimpressed at being upstaged at its own event, and made its feelings known to White House officials,” the report said.

“A lot of work will be going on to map out what a Kamala presidency will look like and what she thinks and feels about issues, and how we deal with her and the people around her,” said one British official to Politico. “I mean, I think we really need to see her VP, and then we can assess the whole ticket and kind of get our claws into every bit of the ticket.”

Harris’ foreign policy and security vision, which advocates for the importance of US engagement in global affairs, is more appealing to Europeans than Trump’s isolationism. Despite the preference for Harris, who seemingly clinched enough support to win her party’s presidential nomination on July 22, Europe is nonetheless preparing for Trump’s potential return to the White House.

According to EU officials cited by Bloomberg, European governments are quietly looking to build relations with Republicans to ensure they have a positive relationship with a new Trump administration. This potentiality has already been prepared for since the Europeans have long been skeptical that Biden will be reelected.

If Harris ends up being the presidential candidate, she will have less than four months to campaign intensely against the in-form Trump, with the most recent polls, as has been consistent since the end of last year, giving the Republican a clear advantage.

Europeans, such as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, say that the US election is entirely a domestic matter. However, many sensitive issues, such as the war in Ukraine, instability in the Middle East, and relations with China, are mostly being put on hold until after the US election. Washington’s strategy for the next few years, whose priorities change depending on whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power, is critical for the 27 EU member states.

For Europeans, Harris represents more of the same as Biden, such as blindly and recklessly supporting Ukraine’s continued war efforts against Russia. In contrast, Trump represents American disinterest in Europe, as opposing China will become the main priority. In this way, although the Europeans would prefer to maintain the current status quo, they are already preparing for the likelihood that Trump will win the election in November.

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