French Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad told POLITICO before the US election results were announced that the military potential was being built up:

"We cannot let voters in Wisconsin decide European security. This is our European security. We must be able to support [the Ukrainians], whatever the outcome [of the election]."

Last week, POLITICO aslo wrote that "Trump win would immediately revive plans for more common EU debt for the bloc's security and defense. That idea - initially pushed by Macron and supported by the EU's new High Representative Kaja Kallas - had even won the tacit support of frugal Northern Europe, but it lost momentum after the French president's election gambit. The shock of a second Trump term would undoubtedly rekindle it, not least because Germany - the country most reluctant to support Macron's ideas - is also the country that fears losing America's security guarantee most."

European leaders have been very quick to congratulate Trump on their willingness to work with him for what President Macron called "greater peace and prosperity." But behind the quick congratulations lies a fear of division on issues ranging from trade and environmental policy to support for Ukraine and the preservation of NATO.

"I'm scared," a senior EU official involved in the bloc's efforts to prepare for a second Trump presidency told the Financial Times. A second senior EU official added, referring to Trump's pledge to impose import duties of 10-20% on all goods imported into the US and his opposition to continued support for Ukraine: "It will be bad for trade. And Ukraine is in big trouble."

Will Europe, and France and Germany in particular, be able to agree on a plan and implement it? And will the EU survive if not?