In Washington
A new episode of the planetary soap opera that has become American politics has just started with the inauguration of Joe Biden.
At noon on Wednesday, former Obama vice president and former Delaware senator became the 46th president of the United States, in an inauguration ceremony that took place without an audience in a transformed capital in an entrenched camp and under strong military protection.
The circumstances of his taking up his duties could hardly have been more unfavorable.
At 78, at the age when others are enjoying their retirement, Biden takes the helm of a country plunged into a serious health crisis and deeply divided politically, half of which does not recognize the legality of his election.
He inherits the immediate task of curbing the Covid-19 pandemic while fighting the extreme politicization that surrounds any public health measure.
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After two and a half months of uncertainty following the presidential election, contested to the end by Trump and his supporters, Joe Biden's entry into office ceremony looked like a collective exorcism.
In the presence of three former presidents, Clinton, Bush and Obama (Carter having been prevented by his old age), but also of Republican officials like Senator Mitch McConnell, or Vice-President Mike Pence, who opposed Trump's attempts to overturn the result of the poll, Biden called for union.
“
It's America Day!
It is democracy day
, he said in his inaugural address, a tradition that dates back to George Washington.
Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy.
The people, the will of the people, has been heard and the will of the people has been taken into account
”.
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"Once again America has been put to the test, once again America has risen to the challenge,"
he added, in direct reference to the events on Capitol Hill, at the very places where the The riot had, fifteen days earlier, attempted to interrupt the certification of its victory.
“We have learned once again that democracy is precious, that democracy is fragile.
At this hour, my friends, democracy has won the day ... Now, on this sacred land where, just a few days ago, violence sought to shake the very foundations of the Capitol, we are coming together in a single nation, under the 'aegis of God, indivisible, to proceed with the peaceful transfer of power, as we have been doing for more than two centuries. "
Just as his predecessor had carefully refrained from using his name since the election, Biden never once mentioned Donald Trump's during his speech.
But his calls to overcome divisions and partisanship were largely directed against the outgoing president, often quick to resort to controversy and ad hominem attacks.
“Disagreement should not lead to disunity.
I promise you, I will be a president for all Americans, and I will fight as well for those who did not support me as for those who did, "
Biden said, echoing one of his campaign themes. .
Calm tensions down
He also warned against what he called a
"war of incivility"
, of which the attack on the Capitol was the latest manifestation, and the most brilliant.
"I know that talking about unity can seem like a crazy fantasy these days
," said the new American president.
I also know that the forces that divide us are deep and real, but I also know that they are not new.
Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality of racism, nativism, fear, demonization, which has long torn us apart.
The battle is perpetual and victory is never assured. ”
“But during the Civil War, the Great Depression, the world wars, September 11, our better side always triumphed… History, faith and reason show us the way, which is that of unity. We can see ourselves not as adversaries, but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop screaming and lower the tensions. ”
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“My friends, this is the moment of truth. We are facing an attack on our democracy and on the truth itself, a virus spiraling out of control, growing inequalities, racism, the climate crisis, the degradation of America's image in the world. Each of these elements is in itself a challenge. Now is the time to be bold, because there is so much to do. One thing is certain, it is that we will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve the accumulation of these crises of our time. ”
Biden also addressed his message to the rest of the world, which has been witnessing for two months dumbfounded at the American political crisis:
"To those who are beyond our borders, America has been tested and we are. came out stronger.
We will mend our alliances and re-engage with the world.
Not to meet the challenges of yesterday, but rather the challenges of today and tomorrow.
And we will lead, not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.
We will be a strong and trustworthy partner for peace, progress and security. ”
Carefully choreographed, the investiture featured all the seriousness that Americans take in their political ceremonies, and all the decorum with which they surround their institutions.
In the absence of any other public than the thousand official guests and their families, the crowd had been replaced by small American flags planted along the Mall, the great esplanade of central Washington.
And part of the National Guard troops deployed to reinforce the police in the capital, were able to applaud the new president.
His age, which makes him the oldest president in the history of the country, also gives him the necessary distance vis-à-vis the passions of the moment.
The election to the presidency of the United States of this somewhat frail, sometimes irascible old gentleman with limited speaking skills is not the least strange event of this period.
But, in the same way he surprised his opponents as well as his competitors during the Democratic Party primary and then during the presidential election, Biden has resources that politicians rarely have.
Thirty-six years in the Senate, followed by eight years as vice-president, left him with a knowledge of the institutional workings and the functioning of the political system, from which no American president has benefited since Lyndon Johnson.
His age, which makes him the oldest president in the history of the country, also gives him the necessary distance vis-à-vis the passions of the moment.
Presented by Trump sometimes as a sleeper, sometimes as an extremist socialist, Biden has behaved since the November 3 election with great restraint.
While his predecessor ranted against a fraud he had never been able to prove, and allowed himself to be drawn into increasingly risky attempts to reverse this result, Biden refrained from arguing with him.
Chosen by default by a majority of voters determined not to have a second term, driven by a pandemic that has exposed the limits of his predecessor's ability to govern, Biden will now have to show that he is the height of the hopes that were placed in him.
