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Biden supporters in Florida
Photo: Maria Alejandra Cardona / REUTERS
There is no longer any doubt: the new President of the United States is called Joe Biden.
The election took place under unprecedented conditions - and it ends an extremely inglorious period in American history.
These days, it is becoming more and more clear that it is high time Donald Trump left the White House.
The president has damaged American democracy more than any of his predecessors.
He declared himself the winner ahead of time and spoke of "fraud" without any evidence.
Despite all the fears, the election and the count were as organized as one would expect from a solid democracy like the USA.
Trump is now using propaganda to try to destroy the legitimacy of a Biden presidency and incite his supporters.
A foretaste of his final months in office.
Trump will try everything to make Biden's entry into the White House as difficult as possible.
When Joe Biden takes office in January, he will take over a country that has been severely traumatized by the four Trump years and this election campaign.
Biden wants to lead the USA back to a forward-looking normalcy.
It will be difficult.
Trumpism persists America as a destructive political force.
More people voted for Trump than in the 2016 election. He has the support of around half of Americans - although more than 234,000 people have died in the corona pandemic.
His catastrophic crisis management is largely responsible for this.
Europe's lessons from Trump's presidency
This president always put his personal gut feeling above facts - and that was precisely what his voters found good.
When a society is as divided as America's, political affiliation becomes a drug: voters become fans who let their team get away with anything.
And so the two camps will continue to fight each other bitterly and will only know friends or enemies.
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Icon: Spiegel Plus Protocol of the choice of fate: "You are destroying America!"
But the vote has consequences not only for America, but also for Europe.
The Germans in particular have dealt obsessively with the Trump presidency - including us at SPIEGEL.
This is an expression of the deeply emotional relationship that many Germans have with that country.
The confrontation with America in this country often vacillates between idealization and demonization.
This is due to German history, but also because America was often the anchor and guiding star of the western world.
The United States has given up this claim to leadership.
Gone is the old certainty that the USA is an ally for Germany who can be relied on in times of need despite all differences.
Germany and the other Europeans must therefore use Biden's presidency: as a preparatory phase for a world in which they are strong themselves.
They have to learn to speak with one voice on important foreign policy issues and to be effective together on defense policy.
Biden shouldn't be underestimated
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President-elect Joe Biden: Pro-Europeans in the White House
Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
Certainly Joe Biden is the most pro-European president the US can have right now.
But the Trump powers could come back to power in four years.
This polarized America has become unpredictable; for a long time it will probably only concern itself with itself and with China.
Nevertheless, it is to be hoped for the USA that Joe Biden will succeed in his endeavor to overcome the era of American populism.
That he not only manages to lead a competent government, but also to cement society and calm the country.
If he succeeded in this, it would be almost a miracle.
Because Trump was not the cause, but the result of polarization.
But Biden shouldn't be underestimated.
There was a lot of joke about him during this campaign - that he was too old and too boring, that he sometimes had trouble speaking and that he was a figure of the past.
But he persevered and won.
Because the majority of American voters saw in him the right antidote after four years of Trump.
Once again it is true that in America in the past few decades almost every president has been followed by his exact opposite.
And that there is always the chance of a new beginning.
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