At 6pm (CET) on Wednesday Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, an event that is obviously also of interest to former Luxembourg prime minister Juncker who has worked with several former American presidents. "Two Republicans--Bush and Trump--and two Democrats--Clinton and Obama--and only Obama was younger than me when he took office,” he recalls. “I was the first Luxembourg prime minister to make an official visit to the White House in August 1995. Some of my predecessors had been there before, of course, but often in the context of the rotating presidency of the European Union."
Biden is no stranger to Juncker. "We frequently saw one another when he was Obama’s vice president. He often consulted me on European issues, we met at international summits… He is a really good guy," Juncker says.
In 2016, Juncker had already encouraged Biden to run for the presidency. "We talked about it and I told him that he had to run for president. He was Obama’s right hand. He told me that he did not have the strength, that he was tired. He had lost one of his sons in 2015 to cancer which had taken a significant toll on him. Years earlier, he had already lost his first wife and one of his daughters in an accident. A presidential campaign was too much for him at the time." Four years later, Biden’s time has come. "I am happy for him," Juncker says.
Donald Trump
"As with all American presidents, I also had good relations with him,” Juncker states. “He always said that he liked me, undoubtedly because I have always been frank and open with him. I did not hide behind the others, but I told him what the commission wanted. At that time he started to realise that Europe existed, because it had one unified voice, that of the president of the commission. When the member states acted in selfish ways, he watched them quarrel and exploited the contradictions that came up between them. While I was expressing myself, by my function and by necessity, always in the same way. I often said: 'Donald, I know that the Hungarians, the Germans or the Italians tell you things: it’s not true, listen to me.' I wasn’t doing that because I was Juncker, but because I was the president of the commission, and he started to become aware of that, little by little.”
As with Clinton, Juncker also knew how to pull Trump’s heartstrings. “At our first meeting, I gave him a picture of General Patton’s tomb at the cemetery in Hamm. Someone had told me that he was a great admirer. I had also added a dedication: 'Dear Donald, don’t forget our common history.' He gave me the treaty of friendship between our two countries signed in 1962, I believe. It really brought us closer together.”
Juncker likes to believe that Trump, like other American presidents before him, would have taken a greater interest in Europe during a second term. "We will never know. But by the end of his first term he had at least come to a better understanding of the European idea," he believes. Although it is true that during his first months as president, "he really vilified Europe, seen as an invention against the USA, with an unreliable Germany, and the French described as a nation without a backbone.”
As with Clinton, Juncker also knew how to pull Trump’s heartstrings Photo: Shutterstock
Tensions were sparked by the debates surrounding state aid to Airbus in Europe and Boeing in the USA . "He imposed sanctions on Europe, and I imposed sanctions on the US, to annoy them. And it worked rather well, because the local elected officials in the US did not like the European response to an American federal decision at all." Finally, “in 2018, I was able to put an end to this strange war on trade that existed between us with the threat of taxation on European car imports."
But Juncker also got a taste of Trump’s paradoxical behaviour. "At our joint press conferences, he would compliment me saying, 'I love Jean-Claude', or, 'It’s a tough guy,' to the extent that you could’ve thought that he wanted me to negotiate for the USA and not for Europe, because the results would have been better. Then he would leave by insulting me in public saying, 'Hey, rude killer,' so it was a relationship on two levels."
Barack Obama
Like many others, Juncker saw a very different kind of president arrive when Obama was sworn in. "He was younger than me, which was a novel aspect in my international career. I really liked him. I was very excited when he was elected. Born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and an Irish mother, he had lived in Indonesia… He had spent much of his life abroad, while the other presidents, including Bush and Trump, did not know the world because they had not travelled. We have to travel to understand, to go there to seize the great and small moments of nations."
His spontaneity “and his reflection made him more ‘international’ than others."
Obama and Juncker Photo: European Union, 2016
Whereas he was less focused on Europe during his first mandate, this changed during the second.
Juncker negotiated a lot with him in 2014 and 2015, "and I can say that he was very tough, especially on commercial matters. It was he who imposed a rate of 2% in terms of defence spending on the European member states of the NATO.”
George W. Busch
"This is the one I saw most often, and with whom I had very serious, very professional discussions. But there was also a sympathy between us, which meant that he would repeatedly ask me about European issues," Juncker recalls.
However, as with Clinton, "I found, that during their first mandate, they were largely indifferent to Europe. But this changed during their second mandate, probably after having seen the influence of Europe on a global scale." So it was during Bush’s second term that "contacts multiplied." So generally the two had a good relationship, but critical topics of discussion issues remained, “I was against his desire to bring the Ukraine and Georgia into the NATO, but also against the war in Iraq”.
George Bush Jr shown with Juncker Photo: European Communities, 2005
The Bush period was also that of the Second Gulf War, and of the resistance of various European countries. “We talked about it and I remember that the French "no" did not surprise him. But the German refusal strongly affected him, because he saw the country as a natural ally on major world issues."
Discussions would continue, but eventually it was Juncker who was at the root of a new start and a reconciliation. "I had invited Bush to Brussels in 2005 for a Europe-USA summit. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder were opposed to his coming. But he came and, from there, the historical relational fabric between the two sides of the Atlantic was slowly re-established, even if the differences remained heavy''.
Bill Clinton
"He is probably the one with whom I had the best personal relations, he was a great president. He was the first American president with whom I had professional relations. They were also harmonious relations, because our ties were singular, very strong."
With foundations built in Luxembourg. During his time as governor of Arkansas between 1983 and 1992 "he had visited Luxembourg as he wanted to implant an Arbed wire works in his state, in Pine Bluff. He had not been received by any Luxembourg politician, no one wanting to sacrifice their leisure time for a governor."
Invited to Washington by Clinton for a first meeting, Juncker then informed the president that his trip would begin not with the White House, but with a visit of the factory that had been born in Arkansas. "Bill Clinton liked it very much because the Americans are, shall we say, very sentimental." This was all it took to seal a strong and lasting relationship.
The two men would meet often afterwards, and "we would have many exchanges, especially during the conflict in Bosnia and Kosovo."
Juncker called Clinton "a great president". Photo: Shutterstock
This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu and translated and edited for Delano.