LONDON – It was a sigh heard all over the world
With almost palpable relief, former American allies welcomed Joe Biden when he was sworn in as 46th President of the United States on Wednesday. Some signaled hopes for a radical change in the White House, particularly in its approach to climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. And some said goodbye to Donald Trump and his nationalist agenda, “America first.”
The European Union’s main policy, Ursula von der Leyen, said that “after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House”.
“This ceremony enshrined on the steps of the US Capitol will be a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy,” she added in a speech in Brussels.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, meanwhile, said that Biden represented “the victory of democracy over the ultra-right”.
Then he aimed directly at the ex-president.
“Five years ago, we thought Trump was a bad joke, but five years later we realized that he was putting at risk nothing less than the most powerful democracy in the world,” he said in a speech.
References to tensions between Europe and the United States under Trump, who accused the European Union of trying to take advantage of America and said that European allies “never treated us well”, were a striking departure from previous messages of congratulation.
But they reflected the alarm that many on the continent felt when Trump broke with long-standing norms and made common cause with the far right – an alarm that turned into horror when the insurrectional crowd encouraged by Trump reached the Capitol on January 6.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier echoed these concerns when he said he was “very relieved” and suggested that many of his countrymen felt the same way.
“Despite all the joy we feel today, we must not forget that even the most powerful democracy in the world has been seduced by populism,” he said as Biden prepared to take an oath. “We must work with determination to combat polarization, to protect and strengthen the public square in our democracies and to shape our policies based on reason and facts.”
Biden’s victory represented “the victory of democracy over the ultra-right and its three methods, massive deception, national division and the abuse, even violent, of democratic institutions,” he added in a speech.
Calling this a “significant day for the American people”, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that his country was “together” with them.
“We will be stronger to face the challenges of our time. Stronger to build our future. Stronger to protect our planet,” he said, before welcoming the United States back to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Some world leaders – particularly those who had closest relations with Trump – issued more standardized statements of congratulations.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “America’s leadership is vital in the issues that matter to all of us, from climate change to Covid.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had “a warm personal friendship that goes back many decades” with Biden.
Officials in China, who have seen relations with the United States go sour dramatically in the past four years, were more circumspect, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying that Beijing hoped Biden would push “relations back on track. right as soon as possible “.
For some American rivals, the inauguration on Wednesday was less of a time to congratulate Biden and more of an opportunity to attack Trump and his foreign policy.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also called on the new government to revert to a 2015 nuclear deal and lift sanctions against Tehran, while welcoming the end of President Donald Trump’s “tyrant” era.
“The ball is in the United States court now. If Washington returns to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, we will also fully respect our commitments under the pact,” Rouhani said at a televised cabinet meeting.
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant group that governs the blocked Gaza Strip, said Trump was “the biggest source and sponsor of injustice, violence and extremism in the world and a direct partner of the Israeli occupation in aggression against our country. people. ”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Andy Eckardt, Ann-Kathrin Pohlers, Paul Goldman and Claudio Lavanga contributed.