2024 US election. Joe Biden resigns. World media commentary

Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would give up his presidential campaign moved public opinion around the world. For the second day in a row, Western media focused on this event.

See also: Vladimir Zelensky, Olaf Scholz, et al. World reacts to Joe Biden’s resignation

French newspaper Le Monde predicts that election First Lady USA For Joe Biden, it has become “a battle too much”. The newspaper acknowledges that in recent months “everything seemed to be conspiring against him” and that despite his perseverance, his forces have failed him.

Le Monde recalled Biden’s profile, pointing out that “if it were not for his persistence, he would not have become the oldest president of the United States at the age of 78.”

The daily noted that Biden had been “underrated for a long time,” and that even though “he had been Barack Obama’s loyal vice president for eight years,” he was unable to claim to be Obama’s successor in 2016. Just four years later, he was able to “get his revenge” and run for office “in his own style — in a hard-fought but unyielding way.”

Later, however, Le Monde reported that this stubbornness “gradually turned against him,” causing him to “ignore the first signs of age,” including slips of the tongue and gaffes, which were “a ruthless barometer of his fitness as president.”

However, the newspaper noted that in recent months “everything seemed to be conspiring against Biden,” including the internal situation in the United States and the war in the Gaza Strip. “His forces failed him and dealt him the final blow,” Le Monde concluded.

Commentators at Germany’s largest newspaper consider Joe Biden’s resignation a correct but risky decision, which could lead to internal conflicts within the Democratic Party but could also bring new impetus to his campaign.

The daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that the Democrats will face chaos, but perhaps also a great opportunity. Journalist, publicist and book author Stefan Cornelius writes that Joe Biden’s resignation does not free them from problems, but it is the beginning of an unprecedented history with both threats and opportunities. The commentator believes that “a new candidate can cheer up America and save the country from having to choose between two unpopular politicians.”

Cornelius noted that the US electoral system is not dominated by political parties, but by charismatic leaders. Stefan Cornelius believes that Biden controlled his party until the end of June, and now the Democrats face a difficult task, as obedience must be transferred to the new candidate. “Will the patient survive the operation?” – the commentator asked.

Cornelius believes that this process could lead to serious conflicts, while on the other hand, if the Democrats send a strong signal of a breakthrough now, then Donald Trump May soon be forgotten – we read in the conclusion of the review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Another German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, wrote that “shortly before the election, the Democrats dared to conduct a dubious experiment” in which Kamala Harris He has to convince the party. “The only thing that is certain is that the excitement in Europe will intensify,” says Nikolas Busse, the author of the article. The expert believes that the reasons for Biden’s failure are at least as much to do with his party and his own weaknesses. In his opinion, participating in the televised debate with Trump was a disaster, but his poll results after this unsuccessful performance were not so bad. “It was the panic within the party that led to his inability to act,” Busse believes.

“You can’t campaign against your own people,” the author points out. “Harris still needs to gain the support of the party. The fact that she is a woman and black will not convince everyone,” Bass believes. In his opinion, the Democratic Party’s opportunity is to elect a candidate who appeals to centrist voters. “By appointing J.D. Vance as vice president, Trump has moved very far to the right. The rest of the world is looking at the United States with excitement. Biden is a politician who firmly believes in the need to cooperate with Europe – there are not many such politicians in Washington,” the publicist says.

In turn, Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine assessed that Biden “realized the consequences of his deteriorating health and mental condition late, but not too late.” The author of the article, Daniel Friedrich Sturm, wrote that “Biden has achieved more in his part of the term than any other president in eight years and will go down in history as one of the greatest.” He added that “without the United States, Ukraine would have lost the war with Russia long ago.”

“President Joe Biden is giving up,” his withdrawal from the race is “a dramatic moment in American history,” a necessary and overdue step – that’s how Italian media commented on his decision on Monday. According to newspapers, the Democratic Party faces a very difficult challenge in choosing a new candidate.

“Goodbye, Biden” – this is the headline on the front page of La Stampa. American journalist Alan Friedman wrote in this newspaper that Biden made this decision at the persuasion of the “democratic elites”, but, as he added, there are disagreements within the party about what to do next. The columnist believes that there is a risk of “chaos” during the Democratic National Convention. “There is an opponent on the other side, an enemy of democracy,” he added.

The Torino Daily also pointed out that Biden’s choice of current Vice President Kamala Harris was not a popular figure at the beginning of the campaign, “but can convince independent voters.” The newspaper said: “Biden can steal the votes of white people who are disappointed with globalization from Trump.” She added that the current Vice President “has completely different roots: women, minorities and undecided people will be her core.”

A commentator for the Italian daily La Repubblica wrote about Biden’s “drama of decision-making.” As he noted, the current situation is one of the most difficult challenges for the Democratic Party because “never in history has a candidate resigned a month before the convention.”

“Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the re-election campaign is a dramatic moment in American history, which raises an urgent question: on whom will the Democratic Party rely and the possibility of avoiding a victory by Donald Trump in the November 5 election,” said a columnist for the Rome newspaper.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera noted that the past few weeks have “hindered President Joe Biden” and raised doubts about his age, leading to “fears about the possibility of his apparent defeat.” He also pointed out that Biden’s age and health were already a topic of discussion even before his “disastrous” televised debate with Trump on June 27.

Another Italian newspaper, Il Messenger, commented on the current president’s decision as follows: “This is a necessary choice, but perhaps it is too late.”

“Biden gives up” – the headline of “Il Giornale” announced. The opinion that “the center of the world is an amusement park” was expressed in the editorial of the newspaper. “The merry-go-round has started and there is nothing to do, except to admire the spectacle with some trepidation. America is on a roller coaster,” the daily said. Adding that the president is “an old grandfather who no one knows what to do”. He also added: “For a long time, his party was unwilling to see this and lived in a fiction. They did not want or know how to solve this problem.”

This attitude was called “I’ll think about it tomorrow” by the newspaper. “When things could no longer be postponed, everything happened suddenly. Biden was abandoned by his friends, trusted people, and those who mattered,” the author of the commentary concluded. In his opinion, “this shows that American presidents are more fragile than people think, and they never make history themselves.”

Il Giornale said, “The game has changed” and “Democrats must now come up with a strategy and Republicans must fight back.”

Commenting on US President Joe Biden’s decision on Sunday to resign from the November election, Spanish media described the announcement as a “common sense” step. They considered it “historic.”

Radio Cadena SER believes that Biden’s decision came too late, but fortunately it came early enough to unite the Democratic Party against the candidacy of Donald Trump. The Madrid radio station compared Biden’s abandonment of his re-election bid to a horse turning away from the road in the middle of a river.

In turn, The Nation, reporting on Biden’s timely “concession”, noted that Vice President Kamala Harris rightly received the Democratic leader’s endorsement as the party’s future electoral candidate.

However, Spanish commentators do not hide that Harris’ role as vice president is overshadowed by Joe Biden’s behavior, and the American politician is often in his shadow. El País claims that Biden himself, who has never favored the politician, is partly responsible for “hiding” Kamala Harris.

El Mundo, another Madrid newspaper, believes that Biden’s decision on Sunday is not only “historic”, it means a step in the right direction. He also called it “an act of common sense”. The newspaper stressed that the US president increasingly feels that he is losing power, and he also feels pressure from the top of the Democratic Party. He praised the courage of the current owner of the White House.

“Joe Biden leaves the stage like a worthy soldier,” Le Monde daily summed up Sunday’s withdrawal from the US presidential reelection.

Canadian media commented on Biden’s decision, pointing out that it gave the Democratic Party a chance to defeat Donald Trump. The conservative daily The Globe and Mail wrote in a commentary: “Kamala Harris as president is better for Canada than Trump returning to the White House.”

A commentator for the centrist liberal Toronto Star emphasized that “Joe Biden may have just given the United States a good chance to avoid the re-election of Donald Trump as president.”

The French-language Le Devoir describes Democrats “wavering between heartbreak and new hope.” French-language public broadcaster Radio-Canada reported that Kamala Harris’s team raised $27.5 million from small donors who paid less than $200 in just five hours after Biden’s decision.