The news that Donald Trump’s reelection as Republican president of the USA had been confirmed hit Austria yesterday around noon, local time. In the evening, WU Vienna hosted a high-profile panel discussion to analyze the possible economic and security policy implications of Trump’s reelection. The panel also discussed the reasons why the election turned out as it did.

Yesterday, November 6, 2024, WU Vienna hosted another edition of its popular “WU matters. WU talks.” panel discussions. The WU Marketing & Communications office coordinated the organization of this event, which placed a strong focus on empirical economic research and featured WU Professor Harald Oberhofer as one of the panelists.

Even though the event took place one day after the 60th US presidential election, hardly anyone had expected that the question raised in its title – “Harris or Trump?” – would already be settled by the time that the discussion began. For one, experts around the world had predicted a neck-and-neck race until the very end. And going by how the last US elections played out four years ago, no one had expected that the outcome would become so clear so quickly this time.

This put WU in the unique position to host one of the very first public talks analyzing Donald Trump’s reelection. The discussion attracted great interest, as was evidenced by the strong attendance, with almost 300 people filling the seats of WU’s Ceremonial Hall 1 when the event began at 6pm sharp.

Vice-Rector Bernadette Kamleitner opened the event and provided a short commentary on the recent events, putting the talk into a broader context by highlighting the far-reaching economic consequences of the US elections for Europe and the rest of the world. She also recalled the history of WU Vienna, which was known as the University of World Trade until 1975, and she pointed out that international trade relations had always been a key aspect of WU’s institutional identity.

Vice-Rector Kamleitner then gave the floor to Kerstin Schlögl, who moderated the event, and Schlögl went on to introduce the panelists.

Harald Oberhofer explained what the economic implications of Donald Trump’s reelection could mean for Austria and the rest of the world. Among other things, he emphasized the interplay between tariffs, inflation, and higher production costs.

As a sought-after political commentator and expert on geopolitics, Velina Tchakarova had no fewer than three TV interview appointments with Austrian broadcaster ORF III on the day of the “WU matters. WU talks.” event. Nevertheless, she still found the time to share her security policy assessments with the audience on Campus WU that evening. She argued that any US election harbors potential global risks. She said that as far as defense spending is concerned, these risks will have very direct consequences for the economy.

As an expert on political psychology, Luca Versteegen provided an assessment of the American people’s concept and perception of democracy, and he took a look at the motivations of Trump voters in particular. According to Versteegen, Donald Trump’s election victory does not necessarily mean that Kamala Harris was the wrong candidate, bearing in mind that her campaign to replace Joe Biden was left only with very little time to go until election day.

The other panelists agreed that Harris had indeed had too little time to prepare, pointing to the many open questions that had remained unanswered in Harris’s election program and her unclear agenda.

They said that the Trump campaign had benefited from the fact that Trump already had a presidential term under his belt and that his appearances and promises had also worked in his favor – they may have been polarizing but they also gave him a strong profile.

Eugen Freund, a former ORF journalist and Member of the European Parliament, lived in the USA for many years. During the discussion, he retraced the chronology of the election and emphasized just how extraordinary the outcome of this 60th presidential election really was.

Even after one and a half hours of discussion, the audience was still very engaged and showing great interest. The panelists took the time to answer the remaining questions from the audience one-on-one. Due to the great success of the event, a follow-up talk is planned to be held one year from now.