Ron DeSantis - Arch-conservative doer, aloof person

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a ceremony. © Paige Dingler/The News & Advance/AP/dpa

He is not a man of the people, but scores points with many conservatives with hard-hitting right-wing policies. The mantra of Ron DeSantis is to never give in. Now he is facing Donald Trump.

Tallahassee - Preservation of the traditional family, crackdown on migrants and protection from the "left-wing agenda": these are the policies that Republican Ron DeSantis has on offer.

The governor of Florida wants to become president of the United States - his application for the candidacy of his party, he made public on Wednesday. At the moment, the hardliner among the Republicans is the only serious opponent of ex-President Donald Trump. Who is the man who wants to move into the White House after the 2024 election?

In recent years, the 44-year-old has strategically positioned himself as a staunchly right-wing doer. And the current culture war in the deeply divided United States offers him the perfect stage for this: The tactic of the smart graduate of the renowned Harvard Law School and ex-Navy member is to occupy controversial topics with radical right-wing politics in a media-effective way and thus unite the conservatives behind him.

Anti-"woke" as a trademark

DeSantis aggressively cracked down on trans people and education about sexual orientation in schools. In doing so, he was primarily directed against the "woke" ideology. This term was originally used to describe an attitude against discrimination and injustice, but is now used by many in the US to denounce exaggerated left-wing correctness.

Being anti-"woke" is DeSantis' trademark. He repeated the phrase "Florida is the place where Woke dies" dozens of times to the frenetic cheers of his supporters. He sees himself as an aggressive opponent of left-wing politics of the media and elitist mainstream, which right-wing circles have built up as an enemy image. A man who does not bat an eyelid in the face of evil, for whom giving in is not an option. He provokes criticism from liberal media, companies or individuals because it gives him a boost.

Corona policy without restrictions and coercion

Perhaps the best example is DeSantis' Corona policy in Florida, which was almost free of restrictions and government coercion. At the same time, the number of infections there went through the roof. He reaped a storm of indignation - but apparently he had a large number of people on his side, the poll numbers were getting better and better. Also on Wednesday, he defended his lax line in the fight against the pandemic and described the actions of the US government as authoritarian. On the controversial issue of immigration, he flew migrants from Texas to the island of Martha's Vineyard off the US East Coast, where a particularly large number of liberal and wealthy Americans have their summer homes, last year with an unprecedented PR staging.

In such provocations, some of the laws of the aspiring politician, which are also popular with Democrats, are forgotten, such as the expanded protection of wildlife reserves and salary increases for teachers. The governor with the conservative picture-perfect family was finally re-elected in November with a historically strong result - contrary to the national trend in the US midterm elections, in which candidates who Trump had supported performed significantly worse than expected.

0

Also Read

Habeck's next heating coup: Draft leaks through – probably consequences for tenants, owners and municipalities

READ

After victory in Bakhmut: Wagner mercenaries and Russia's soldiers advance along highways

READ

Russian missile hits NATO state: Poland scoffs at "special" Russian missile

READ

Massive Russian losses in 24 hours: Ukrainian General Staff publishes figures

READ

Special weapon of the Ukrainians teaches Russian attack helicopters fear

READ

Fancy a voyage of discovery?

My Area

Live conference on Twitter at the start of the election campaign

For his election campaign start, DeSantis has now chosen a remarkable platform. In a kind of live conference on Twitter, he described his plans to the eccentric head of the short message service, Elon Musk. The tech billionaire is known for acting as an amplifier of right-wing political theses and has had several accounts of disagreeable journalists and other critics blocked in the past. DeSantis paid homage to Musk in the audio broadcast as an "advocate of free speech" - not surprisingly, Musk and various questioners also had nothing but praise for DeSantis.

It is unusual that DeSantis does not announce his plans in a huge hall with a glossy look and broadcast live by the major television networks, but comments on his ambitions in a chat with the Twitter owner. The strategy behind this could be that DeSantis relies on Trump's former favorite platform and its boss as an advocate - after all, Musk is considered a rock star among businessmen with a large conservative fan base and guarantees attention. The help of the billionaire, who recently said he simply wanted a "reasonably normal" president, could hurt Trump and drive hesitant supporters to DeSantis.

Trump knows that DeSantis is probably his biggest intra-party rival – and is probably not entirely wrong with the narrative that he helped him to the governorship as a mentor. The former real estate mogul has shot at him, DeSantis has even indirectly moved into the vicinity of sex with minors. And on the recently passed, particularly far-reaching law to restrict abortions in Florida, Trump said that even many conservatives found it "too sharp". In doing so, he has often agitated himself as an agitator and otherwise cares little about differentiation.

Image of the disloyal careerist could hurt DeSantis

DeSantis, however, wants to be the electable, better Trump: not a drama, but results - and all this without the ballast and burden of the ex-president. But he is walking a fine line: Trumps has millions of core supporters, observers are talking about about 30 percent of voters, and the man from the Sunshine State must not alienate them if he wants to have a chance against Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024. And he must reckon with the fact that Trump will incite his base against him if he expects to gain an advantage from it. In any case, during the Twitter event, Trump's name was not mentioned once.

But something else could be DeSantis' undoing: Again and again, he emphasizes that he is not interested in popularity - unlike Trump. This doesn't just seem to be a pose: Political companions regularly speak out, expressing disappointment that DeSantis has ignored them. A lack of cliques and the image of the disloyal careerist could damage him in the election campaign.

DeSantis is not considered a jovial man of the people: small talk is difficult for him, and events with close contact with the electorate quickly become unpleasant. After a recent trip abroad where he met British business leaders, Politico magazine reported that DeSantis seemed bored and uninspired. An eyewitness said that no one in the room got the impression that "this man is going to do anything."

Does DeSantis stand a chance?

So far, little has been said about what a President DeSantis could mean for US foreign policy and allies like Germany. Most recently, he caused a stir with statements that Russia's war against Ukraine should not be a priority for the US in view of domestic political challenges. Nevertheless, from a European point of view, compared to Trump, there is hope that DeSantis could act more prudently and not recklessly jeopardize alliances.

In polls, Trump was recently far ahead of competing presidential aspirants in his party. Observers also blame the investigations of the US judiciary against him, which unites the Republicans to some extent behind him. But Trump's current lead in the polls does not suggest that DeSantis has no chance. At the same time in the 2007 Democratic primary, Barack Obama was a clear outsider to Hillary Clinton. And in May 2015, a certain Donald Trump was even in the low single digits in polls. Dpa