BARCELONA – In 2018, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson proposed that President Trump could earn the Nobel Peace Prize for his outreach to North Korea. But on Wednesday, Johnson, now the Conservative prime minister, “Scandalous scenes in the US Congress” and called for a “peaceful and orderly transition of power” in Washington. He did not specify who would stand in the way, but it is obviously not the Democrats.
And it was one of the softer expressions of outrage from leaders and commentators around the world during the spectacle of the American Capitol overrun by an armed crowd incited to violence by the president himself, in which former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt unbelievably described as ‘rebellion’. Nothing less. In Washington. German Chancellor Angela Merkel regrets that Trump has not acknowledged his defeat since November and not again yesterday. Doubts about the election result were raised and created the atmosphere that made last night’s events possible. “French President Emmanuel Macron has assured the world that ‘what happened … is definitely not American’, which many Americans also like to believe, while suspecting that the opposite may be true.
Historian and author Andrew Hussey, who described the state of mind in Paris, said that “the French are also stunned, too scared”, through Wednesday’s drama, and that the French media now portrays Trump as “not just a demagogue”. but also as a wicked man with blood on his hands. The bizarre scenes of protesters – the long-bearded guys, the strange survivors, the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters – made Hussey realize that Trump had brought these marginal groups right into the center of the American to challenge democracy. “They are also concerned about the possibility of a second civil war in the United States, as the cultural war that has been going on for years ‘has broken out – and the violence on social media has been put into action.’
Even European political figures who had previously adopted Trump’s trademark of right-wing populism have apparently become icy on the 13-day-old man in the White House.
Former Brexit frontman and longtime Trump supporter Nigel Farage condemned the uprising and tweeted Wednesday night that “Storming Capitol Hill is wrong. The protesters must leave. Marine Le Pen of the French far-right National Rally demanded that Trump “should condemn what happened”. A call for “all parties in the US to maintain self-control and prudence” comes from the Turkish government, which under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not known for self-control in dealing with differences of opinion.
On the other hand, Russian politicians seemed to be enjoying the chaos. “The celebration of democracy is over. It has unfortunately reached a low point, and I say this without a hint of dislike, ‘believes Konstantin Kosachyov, chair of the International Affairs Committee in the Russian parliament. ‘America no longer signs the course and has therefore lost all its rights to determine it. And especially to impose it on others. “Moscow’s messages contain ‘perhaps a certain joy’, ‘Felix Light of the independent Moscow Times said,’ that America gets its fair deserts – as they see it – for engineering revolutions in Ukraine, Serbia, North Africa and the rest , that the shoe is now on the other foot, with a revolutionary revolution that has come home. ‘
Trump did receive support from former lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky of Russia’s hard-line Liberal Democratic Party, who tweeted encouragement for the beleagured US president: “Be brave Donald. We are with you, you will get help abroad. ‘
But a day after the Capitol siege, Trump’s favorite strongmen – Russian Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán – were silent. This did not surprise Marius Dragomir, director of the Center for Media, Data and Society, in Budapest: “That kind of violence was even too much for many Trump supporters in Europe.” Dragomir expects them to remain silent, though he worries that some may draw private encouragement from Trump’s shameless attempt to steal the election.
Roland Freudenstein, policy director of the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies in Brussels, was encouraged by the way in which Congress could resume its work within hours. The reunion and the unchanging attitude of Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who all insisted the count continue – ‘was an important signal that the system is working, the system kept going. ‘
He sees ‘the beginning of something good’ in the episode. Democratic principles that stand up to challenges only reinforce them, he said.
The question of whether Trump can stay safe or healthy for the remaining two weeks is raised by Freudenstein and other thinkers. “Leaving Trump with his finger on the trigger” is disturbing, Freudenstein said, although he is not sure if administration officials have the opportunity to call for the 25th amendment – which has the approval of the vice president and the majority of the cabinet required. to evict the president. “If they do not remove him in the next few days, it will look bad,” he said. .
Dragomir, while relieved that democratic instruments such as the 25th Amendment are available, fears that the appeal could trigger more violence and ‘make Trump a martyr for his supporters’. Like the rest of Europe, Dragomir is forced to count down the minutes until the current occupant of the White House is gone. “We can not all wait until January 20 to arrive,” he said, “and the man is out the door.”
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