"French election to decide EU fate; Crimea remains Russian"

"French election to decide EU fate; Crimea remains Russian"

Instead of the EU, he believes, there will remain only Germany as a great power, "and all those associated with it in Europe."

"That would not be good for the continent," said Gusenbauer.

If, however, the social liberal candidate Emmanuel Macron wins in France, that would "provide a new dynamic to European integration, since he is a very engaged European."

"Sometimes it's very close between right and wrong and it's not enough to have a majority," Gusenbauer said, and pointed to last year's presidential elections in the United States.

At the same time, he said he "does not believe in the victory of Le Pen, who opposes the EU" and would "bet on Macron and Europe."

As for Donald Trump, Gusenbauer said we now live in "a very interesting time, experiencing a slow change into a new era."

"What this era will look like depends on the behavior of political actors," he believes.

Although the risk of armed conflict between the great powers is "still low," the former head of Austria's government thinks it is "worrying that a confrontation has once again become a possibility" and, for this reason, thinks that pragmatic cooperation between the world powers is "important."

The situation around North Korea is "particularly problematic," he said. The danger is in the fact that almost nothing is known about that country and the events there, "which is why cooperation between China and the United States is important," he said.

Gusenbauer also hopes that the US will seek an understanding with Russia in order to "cope with the Chinese challenge."

He also recommended "a proactive role towards Moscow" to the EU, and criticized anti-Russia sanctions.

"I do not think that sanctions are an appropriate means to achieve the goal," he said, adding that they "only strengthened Russia's President Vladimir Putin."

Gusenbauer thinks there is "no hope" that Moscow will ever "return Crimea to Ukraine."

"No one believes that Crimea will ever again not be a part of Russia," he said.