Click to see the full-size image
Written by Patrick Poppel, expert at the center of geostrategic studies in Belgrade
When Biden announced his resignation this week via X/twitter it came as a surprise to many readers of German newspapers and other news outlets. The main reason being that his illness and deteriorating mental capacities were mostly kept secret from the public during these past months. When Biden spoke on German television he was dubbed into i.e. German sounding logical, concise and in full possession of his so called marbles. Those not able to watch the president speak in his native language were kept oblivious to the fact that growing cognitive issues were posing an increasing threat to future political plans and maybe even national security interests of the United States.
When telling a regular story about other leaders’ supposed health problems, especially including Russian president Vladimir Putin, there was hardly any mention of the many instances where president Biden made a fool of himself. Only a few internet publications mentioned his problems to finish sentences, remember names correctly or even find his way off a podium where he just spoke.
Only after the first debate between Trump and Biden, where Biden’s lacking cognitive agencies could no longer be ignored, did the German media start to break its silence towards the possibility that Biden might resign. Tabloid outlets, such as the Austrian OE24 or the German BILD started speculating a little earlier about the impending end of the Biden era.
When it finally happened German media reported mainly respectful and to the point about their ailing leader quoting health issues as the reason for his departure. N24 argued that Biden’s late departure and refusal to step down earlier was a dangerous disservice to the future of the American block.
Switzerland’s „Neue Zürcher Zeitung“ called Biden the „tragic“ president making him out to be a suffering saint in his fight for American influence in the world. Church news outlet „Domradio“ in line with smaller American publications even compared the Biden resignation with age issues of popes and the resignation of Benedict XVI. This kind of sanctification of a more than problematic political figure as Joe Biden is nothing new for German media in recent years.
Very little is known here about the president’s family’s legal trouble, linking Hunter Biden to everything from drug issues to corruption and the sale of political influence in Ukraine.
Biden’s successor Kamala Harris is also showered with adoration ignoring her past as a prosecutor and political pundit, mainly focusing on her role as a black woman and progressive, fighting for so called reproductive rights (abortion) and keeping America open to mass immigration and an ever increasing welfare state.
Some of the economic data surrounding the Biden presidency is actually quite good, with unemployment being low and median income remaining high, but often democrat-controlled large cities suffer from high crime rates, an increasing homeless and drug problem and the real estate market being unaffordable for regular families.
Especially inflation, being driven by sky high energy prices (Ukraine war driven price increases plus carbon or climate taxes) and an unprecedented interest rate hike that leads to many Americans defaulting on their mortgages, might pose an insurmountable obstacle to Kamala Harris’ aspirations to become US president.
If these issues are raised by German media, they are mostly presented as global phenomena, without putting too much blame on Biden and his team. CDU party leader Johann Wadephul praised Biden in retrospect, claiming that a president Harris wouldn’t be as interested in Europe and geopolitics as Biden is. As someone who is more US-centric she would be an even stronger advocate for US economic interest, more likely to ignore the needs of Europe. She is loyal to Nato and the EU and therefore preferable to Trump.
SPD foreign policy advisor Metin Hakverdi implied that Harris might demand more monetary and active involvement of the EU in defense policies, especially concerning the Ukraine war, predicting a shift from Biden’s willingness to do the heavy lifting for the EU block. In general, though, voices in German media remain mostly very positive towards the Biden era and a possible continuation with Kamala Harris.
One commentator on German TV even spent valuable air time talking about Kamala’s „infectious“ and „guttural“ laugh, fawning over the prospective candidate, a scene quite unthinkable even in American media.
German left-wing publication TAZ praised Biden for giving 175 billion dollars to the Ukraine war effort but was slightly critical of his policies concerning the situation in Gaza, saying that he was too slow in distancing himself from Israel’s military response, which has been criticized by many human rights activists.
Also TAZ reprimanded Biden for pulling out of Afghanistan too quickly and therefore facilitating a Taliban takeover of the country. On economics TAZ praised Biden’s efforts to curb climate change but also lamented that Biden’s program to further e-mobility was only applicable to cars being produced within the US, leaving the EU in the dust.
In general, it can be said that German and European media will continue to stand behind US policies, with major criticisms coming out of independent, mostly online publications, even if
Donald Trump should win the presidency in the fall.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
pedo joe replaced by mafia don wannabe.
same shit, different pile…
at least the don won’t deliver hellfires to kill toddlers
maybe this is the year germany declares independence from the united states and stops watching american tv.
germanistan is a lgbt neutered eunuch getting shagged by penatcon thugs and doesn’t even remember what balls are. as for the current collection of imbeciles “running” germanistan…. their combined iq would not boil an egg. germanistan aka the eussr is skrewed.
our good friends from the german media, better known as “lügenpresse”, were never somethings else than good people, truth tellers down to bone.
good riddance to biden and his immediate family! he was a mistake already in 2020! kamala cackel has probably agreed to pardon hunter and biden’s brother if joe himself is locked away in the lunabin!