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Readers of "Le Monde" with the current issue on the US election
Photo: Francois Mori / AP
"We will go to the Supreme Court. We want all voting to end": In a bizarre speech, US President Donald Trump proclaimed himself the winner on election night, although the counting was far from over in many states.
Read a selection of the comments in the international press on Trump's memorable appearance:
"Le Monde"
, France: "One of the oldest democracies in the world, the United States (of America), finds itself in an unprecedented situation: an incumbent president deliberately disrupts a federal electoral process, claims victory for himself and himself during the counts threatens to interrupt this through an independent judicial decision (...). This is a disregard for universal suffrage. The function of the election, which is an essential part of the democratic system, is denied. "
The Guardian
, UK: "Should Donald Trump leave - and there is little evidence that he would do so without a fight - his legacy will be a policy of anger and hatred. For America it is a tragedy that." a dangerous split becomes the norm rather than an exception. In the US there is a concern that the cultural divisions are irreversible. For the Americans, the main concern should be to prevent the political divide from widening tears wide open that the two hostile - and partly armed - camps can no longer talk to each other.
Independent
, UK: "Trump had the chance to emerge from this election - victorious or not - with a semblance of dignity. A careful public relations campaign over the past 48 hours could have done that. Instead, he took the path of the worst Loser chosen. "
"La Vanguardia"
, Spain: "The lack of conclusive results means that an already polarized and irritable country does not yet know whether its future president will be Trump or Biden. In order to determine the winner, the last vote cast in the mail must also be counted Becoming ... Claiming victory in advance and accusing the Democrats of fraud does nothing to calm the mood in a nervous and divided society. Trump despises democracy. (...)
"De Standaard"
, Belgium: "Donald Trump leaves no doubt that he will defend his presidency by all possible means. In a strange speech, he has already declared himself the winner. And he described the ballot as" shameless falsification " He threatened Biden’s possible victory with contestation before the Supreme Court. (...) An incumbent president who threatens to cling to power and calls on his supporters to oppose the democratic process: scenes like this are common in the Past in the streets of Kinshasa, Abidjan and Caracas. But who would have thought that this scenario would be possible in Washington DC? "
Volkskrant
, Netherlands: "Remarkably, Trump's unprecedented snub against American voters and the electoral system barely caused an international stir, with anger from the Democratic Party and mainstream American media (like CNN, which Trump hated), and even Fox News responded But where the world usually speaks of shame when some African presidents cling to power with intimidation and unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, the silence was deafening. "
"Gazeta Wyborcza"
, Poland: "The blackest of all possible scenarios has come true in the US. Donald Trump's announcements show that he will stop at nothing just to avoid defeat. The attempt to get hundreds of thousands of postal votes in several states of Excluding the election is not an attack on democracy, but an attempt at its funeral. ... The attack on democracy will have irreversible consequences for America's international effectiveness. Trump may have the atomic button and the most powerful army and economy in the world. But for that West he will no longer be just the eccentric in the White House, but a usurper. You can do business with someone like that, but you can hardly treat them as a partner. "
"Rzeczpospolita"
, Poland: No American president has dared so spectacularly to undermine the basic rule of democracy, according to which every vote cast under specified conditions counts equally ... For the first time, half of the population could assume that a usurper is going on at the head of their country. "
"Tages-Anzeiger"
, Switzerland: "It is already clear that the United States is more divided than it has been since the civil war. The election made that clear. Whoever is in the White House in future will be president of two Americas, one red and a blue one. And these two Americans do not want to know anything about each other and are antagonistic to each other. The damage is done. Biden would try to reconcile the two camps. But that is a task for generations. And Donald Trump, we now know that, doesn't care about democracy. "
"NZZ"
, Switzerland: "The election showed the division of the country, which had been mentioned so often in the run-up, to its full extent. Almost half of the voters have their vote for the president despite all his lies and rabble The other half sees him as a dangerous potentate. How this gap is to be overcome is open ... All the more reason to hope that the next few days will bring clear results that both camps and the media will carefully interpret and conclusively explain Firing speculations could have serious consequences. The election is not decided until all votes have been counted. "
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as / dpa