After President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, readers of European news sites today will spend today scrolling past large amounts of content before getting to national news. Likewise, almost every UK newspaper cleared its front page to splash with this story.
There is almost total agreement across the continent that Biden has done the right thing by abandoning his efforts as a candidate. Media coverage reflects the relief felt by Euro elites that this could get their desire for “Anyone but Trump” back on track, with the doddering incumbent looking less and less likely to win at the polls.
Biden’s frailty heightened the risk of a Trump presidency, undermining the ‘adults in the room’ approach sought by technocratic leaders the world over. Previous lies about presidential health, like the wishes of 14 million registered democrats who backed Biden, don’t matter in the quest for power.
In public, European leaders express the same view about Biden having done the ‘right thing,’ as—not for the first time in recent weeks—Europe’s media and political classes turn their attention from home and are now focussed almost solely on the U.S.A.
As Politico sees it:
Bottom line: Biden’s decision to drop out from the race is cheering to Europeans who were increasingly resigned to a second Trump presidency. But Harris’s path to the White House is by no means a straight line—and more surprises could be in store. May cooler heads prevail.
France’s Le Figaro says that this conclusion has been “hanging over” the president’s team ever since it became acceptable for the establishment to discuss Biden’s worsening state—that is, since that horrendous debate debacle: one which The European Conservative’s Sven R. Larson described as an effective “Trump infomercial.”
Le Monde agrees that “the pressure had become unbearable” after Biden’s former backers and high-profile friends began urging him to move on. Much of the backroom work to unseat him resembles a palace coup, although few European pundits have picked up on this—despite the wishes of 14 million registered Democrats.
It is fairly clear that European leaders hold the same view, too—even if they’ve put it more politely. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said “we respect today’s tough but strong decision,” echoing the sentiments of Polish PM Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and—just days after he rejected the claim Biden was “senile”—the UK’s Sir Keir Starmer.
As significant as Biden’s announcement—“another powerful moment in the craziest U.S. election year in generations,” as Bild put it—is, Europe’s media has been quick to turn its attention away from him and towards Kamala Harris, who will run in his place. The German newspaper says it is “striking” that she has failed to receive the instant backing of former president Barack Obama, and speculates that this might be because his wife Michelle Obama “might still enter the race.” Italy’s la Repubblica also suggests that the fact Harris is a woman with an Indian mother and Jamaican father “could prove difficult for voters” (but what about her politics?).
And as for Donald Trump, elements of the press, including Britain’s Daily Telegraph, agree—again, not for the first time—that the Republican “is now certain to win the presidency.” Readers don’t have to wait long—less than four months, in fact—to find out.
