‘Biden can’t do it’: European politicians shocked by US president’s debate flop | US elections 2024

European politicians, already mired in multiple crises of their own, were left shocked and horrified by Joe Biden’s meandering performance in Presidential debate on Thursdayrealizing that Trump’s second term is much closer – with all that that means for the rise of populism on the continent, the future of NATO, and for Ukraine and the Middle East.

Voices of despair came from across the political spectrum, interspersed with the odd call for Europe to prepare even more intensively for a second coming of Trump.

“American democracy killed before our eyes by a gerontocracy,” Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European Parliament and former prime minister of Belgium, posted on X.

Germany’s CDU foreign policy specialist Norbert Rötgen said: “This night will not be forgotten. The democrats they should rethink their choice now. And Germany must prepare at full speed for an uncertain future. If we do not take responsibility for European security now, no one will.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski gave the most Delphic advice on the importance of succession planning. “Marcus Aurelius was a great emperor, but he screwed up his legacy by passing the baton to his helpless son Commodus (he of Gladiator). Whose disastrous reign began the decline of Rome. It’s important to manage your ride into the sunset.” It’s unclear whether Barack Obama or Biden has been cast as Aurelius.

Dr. Leslie Winiamuri, director of the Americas program at the Chatham House think tank, which is deeply immersed in Democratic politics, struggled to defend Biden, although she said she thought his political performance was strong.

“It’s been a very challenging debate,” she said. “President Biden had a very slow start and was fighting all the time — of course, in a very difficult format. Being in a room for 90 minutes without an audience is exhausting, and it’s not what President Biden was able to experience.”

Although she accused Trump of engaging in a fact-free debate on almost every issue, she felt the debate “will leave most Americans disappointed.”

In a tweet, she was more direct, saying: “America and Americans are at their best when they see a problem, tackle it, find a solution. Make it happen.

Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank and a former Swedish prime minister, said Biden’s performance was so bad that ECFR’s six published warnings about Trump’s foreign policy “are now required reading.”

One warning is that a deep nightmare lies beneath the potential foreign policy shocks Trump would cause. Bild said an international coalition “could emerge as a framework for populists in Europe to establish special ties with Trump’s Washington. Trump’s re-election could encourage the populist right in Europe to more strongly obstruct common EU policies and initiatives.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of Germany’s liberal FDP told the Rheinische Post: “The fact that a man like Trump can become president again because the Democrats are unable to field a strong candidate against him would be a historic tragedy that the whole world would feel

Indeed, one of the messages delivered directly to the White House was that this is not just about America, it’s about the world.

In Italy, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said simply: “Joe Biden can’t do it.” He wrote to X that Biden served the US with honor, adding: “He does not deserve an inglorious end, he does not deserve one. Changing horses is everyone’s duty.”

Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not respond to Trump’s ominous remarks during the debate that Kiev had taken too much military aid from the US and his reference to Volodymyr Zelensky as a “traitor”.

Trump repeated his claim that if he were president in 2022, Russia would not have launched a full-scale invasion and said a peace deal would be negotiated between his election in November and his inauguration in January. Moscow feigned indifference, saying Vladimir Putin had not woken up specifically to watch the debate.

The Russian official press was less kind. “Biden unexpectedly misspoke several times and stuttered. “Democrats have already called his performance a failure,” state news agency RIA concluded, leaving Trump without criticism.

In the UK, Rishi Sunak said the only debate he cared about was the one he had with Keir Starmer over Labour’s plans to raise taxes.

The silence emanated from David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary whose inevitable tenure is set to be defined by America’s November election. He went to great lengths to address all the nuances of Republicanism and even argued that Trump might not be as bad as some predicted.

But one of Lammy’s closest allies, Ben Rhodes, who was among Barack Obama’s most senior aides, posted: “Just think what that debate looked like for people and leaders around the world… Telling people that no saw what they saw is not the way to answer that.”