Story highlights After Brexit and the Trump victory, traditional political expectations lie in tatters

Soon voters in France, Austria, Italy and Germany will have their say in national polls

The outcomes could change the political map of Europe

(CNN) If Europe's leaders thought Brexit was an aberration, the election of Donald Trump brought the reality of their own vulnerabilities crashing home.

With political norms and expectations shattered, attention is turning to the heart of western Europe -- to France, Germany, Austria and Italy, each of which holds national polls in the coming months.

For so long, the allies were able to look across the Atlantic at one another and see themselves more or less reflected back.

President-elect Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric and subsequent election victory has smashed that mirror.

What really draws down the darkening for Europe's leaders, however, is the realization that there are plenty of other European politicians ready to remake their own image in Trump's.

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