For anyone who thought that the Brexit vote in June would mark the year's biggest political upset, the real earthquake came on 8 November - the day the US elected Donald Trump.
As with British pollsters and Brexit, US pollsters had predicted that the controversial property developer would lose.
The moment that his victory became clear, at about 8:00 a.m. Brussels time on 9 November, US diplomats in the EU capital began saying he would govern more soberly than he had campaigned.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.