Joe Biden: "I will not be the president who divides, but the one who unites"

Joe Biden greets the crowd after giving the speech this Saturday in Wilmington (Delaware) .ANDREW HARNIK / POOL / EFE

A message of unity to move forward in a country divided into two halves and plunged into the worst socioeconomic crisis in a century.

The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has addressed the nation this Saturday night to finally proclaim his victory, after days of agonizing scrutiny, and offer an outstretched hand to his adversaries to advance (“they are opponents, not enemies ”), Including through bipartisan cooperation in Congress to address the most urgent task of his incipient mandate, the Covid-19 crisis.

"It is time to heal the United States," he reiterated, a purpose that sounded even more ambitious because it went beyond the pandemic, directly to heal the fracture caused by the exercise of power of Donald Trump, and now his evil to lose.

"It's time to defeat hopelessness," he said, calling on his fellow citizens to join him and decide if they want to cooperate instead of fight.

"The popular mandate that we have received is that of cooperation between parties," he recalled, while weighing the 74 million votes received, the highest support for a president at the polls in the history of the country.

The management of the pandemic will begin, he said, with the creation of a crisis cell "made up of leading scientists and experts" that will be formed this Monday and will begin to operate "on January 20," the day the Democratic politician he must take office as the 46th president of the United States.

"Our work begins by putting the covid-19 under control, we are not going to save any effort on it," he stressed.

Remembering the more than 236,000 fatalities of the disease in the country led him to empathize with the pain with their families, he, who knows so well what it means to lose a child - he has buried two - with a special reminder of his idolized son Beau, who was also endorsed by vice president

, Kamala Harris, during her introductory speech to Biden.

Facing the challenge of climate change and the socioeconomic inequality caused by “systemic racism” were other announcements of his speech, with a special mention of the support received from the African-American community, especially in the locality where he resides and with which he maintains close ties.

Not for nothing, as Harris recalled, Biden has elected the first vice president of color in history, having worked for eight years with the only black president of the United States, Barack Obama.

The veteran Democratic politician - the country's second Catholic president;

the fifteenth vice president who surpassed his mark by reaching the presidency - repeated much of the content of the messages of concord and reconciliation delivered these days, such as that he will not govern as a politician of a party, "but for all Americans."

"I'm going to work as hard for those who didn't vote for me as I did for those who did, because it's time to end the demonization [of the opposite], people want Democrats and Republicans to join forces."

His speech is a hand extended to Donald Trump to facilitate the transfer of power, and a wink to the Republican's voters, whose discomfort he said he understood.

Hope, truth, unity, empathy, science, truth: a few very simple words that mark a clear dividing line with respect to its predecessor.

They were also the most repeated concepts in the vice president-elect's introductory speech, who preceded Biden on stage dressed in white as a suffragette and quoting the late civil rights leader John Lewis to begin with: “Democracy is not a state, it is an act ”.

"We cannot take it for granted, you have to fight for it, it requires effort and struggle," he said.

"I will be the first woman in this position, but not the last, many girls will see today that it is possible, that this is the land of possibilities if you dream with ambition and lead with conviction," said a more energetic and charismatic Harris. her boss, for whom she pretends to be "like Joe was with Obama, a loyal collaborator, a hard and strong worker."

"The road is not going to be easy but America is ready, just like Joe and I are."

Qualified by the format chosen for his appearance, before an audience of several hundred people next to their cars in a desolate Wilmington parking lot, Biden's official presentation as president-elect was marked by an imposing security display, which sealed the entrances to the venue several hours before the event.

Many supporters remained at the gates, such as Said, a real estate agent who had come

from Philadelphia to celebrate Biden's victory.

“These four years with Trump I have felt in danger, just because I am of immigrant origin and my parents were born in another country.

But I am from here, like him, although for him I was a second-class citizen.

I'm here because Biden is a person, a human being who sees me as an equal and who is really going to regenerate the country. "

Despite the barrage of decibels that left the stage where Biden and Harris appeared before the world, Said could only follow his speech on the radio.

Then, among the traditional family scenes that the Biden-Harris tandem orchestrated on the stage, with the incorporation of their respective relatives, the roar of fireworks, including a diorama that marked the number 46 of the new presidency, put an end to a crucial night for the recovery of America.

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