On Monday, the annual World Economic Forum opened in the Swiss Alpine city of Davos with the theme of “rebuilding trust.”
Leaders from business, world politics and academia will discuss topics as wide-ranging as the world economy, AI, disinformation, climate change and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
But Jona Källgren writes that in the background lies something that is so big, so worrying for many of the leaders on site, that it can hardly be mentioned at the meeting – that Donald Trump might become president of the United States again.
Being in Davos during the World Economic Forum is an almost surreal experience. Helicopters buzz in the air, soldiers and police on every street corner, demonstrators in the square and everywhere people hurrying between meetings with their cellphones glued to their ears.
Of course I don’t live in Davos. A small room costs around SEK 10,000 per night during the World Economic Forum. Instead, I drive for an hour from a cheaper hotel that fits a media budget in these hard times – through the mountains, past police checkpoints and into the chaos.
In the middle of this, I meet Peter Thal Larsen, who is the head of the Reuters news agency’s political and economic analysis department. He has been reporting from Davos since 2006, and this year he notices that no one seems to want to discuss the most obvious: “What will happen to all this if Donald Trump wins the election in November?” Asking him.
Nobody seems to want to answer that question. There will be hundreds of discussions, debates and speeches, but Donald Trump is not mentioned in the program once. It’s like Trump is Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter books. He who must not be named.
Zelensky, Macron and Li Qiang
It is of course possible that one of the leaders who will be speaking will break the barrier and actually discuss what would happen if Trump comes to Davos next year as “president elect.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is scheduled to give a speech on Tuesday, may say something about Trump saying he will “fix the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.”
Emmanuel Macron may want to say something about the media reporting detailing how Donald Trump said the US will never help defend Europe if it is attacked.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang may mention Trump when he talks about tariffs imposed under the previous president.
But they will probably keep quiet.
Reminds me of 1924 masterpiece
It makes me think of the most famous book actually written about the town of Davos. In Thomas Mann’s masterpiece “Bergtagen,” which he completed in 1924, a sanatorium in the mountains of Davos is described. Life up there continues as usual: patients continue to receive treatment, go for walks, fall in love and have long discussions.
But down in the lowlands, far away from the Swiss mountains, Europe, and the world, is slowly being torn apart.
Towards the end of the book, the First World War breaks out.