US President Joe Biden and his administration are under pressure. The democracy summit was meant to change that. Heads of state from all over the world were pushed to help him, sources in Switzerland claim to the online magazine Nebelspalter (est. 1875)
- Head of states were pushed to Joe Biden's Democracy Summit, sources in Switzerland claim
- Most of them just followed half an hour of the two day summit
- There was widespread head-shaking over Joe Biden's exploitation of the event for domestic political purposes and the Democratic Party platform
ZURICH, Switzerland, Dec. 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It was Dec. 9th, eight o'clock in the morning in Washington when Joe Biden addressed a good hundred heads of state in a studio yesterday. They were connected by video and lined up next to each other on a screen. The summit was supposed to be a great demonstration of global democracy. In his brief opening statement, however, Joe Biden turned the meeting into a domestic political event, praising his policies and in particular his various investment plans.
There was a reason that so many heads of state participated. The administration had pulled out all the stops to sign up a hundred heads of state. Sources familiar with the matter say that the U.S. Embassy in Bern made several approaches to the Swiss Federal Council - the Swiss government - and that the State Department in Washington got in touch with the Swiss Embassy to make sure that Swiss President Guy Parmelin would attend the summit at all costs.
Parmelin finally agreed and was present for Biden's opening statement and an initial discussion closed to the public. After half an hour, he, like the American president and most other heads of state, had better things to do, sources say. Since then, diplomats from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have participated on behalf of Switzerland.
Promoting the Democratic program
No sooner had Joe Biden praised democracy and human rights in his opening remarks than he got around to talking about his domestic investment plans. And then followed the Democrats' entire governing agenda, from Racial Justice to Gender Equality to promoting unions and the LGBTQ+ community.
Apparently, numerous countries were not looking forward to serving as staffage for Joe Biden's domestic political profiling. Therefore, statements and panel discussions were added to the program, where for example EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, moderated or gave speeches. Joe Biden was no longer around, and left this to his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The US invited only states to the summit that hold elections and are allied with the US - in some cases like Angola or Iraq it was quite a generous choice. The meeting is to be repeated in December 2022. See the full article in German here. See the analysis of the Biden administration here.
Related Images
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Joe Biden providing his opening remarks
Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken at the opening of the Democracy Summit on Dec 9th, 2021 (Source: Screenshot from YouTube by Dominik Feusi)
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/579c2004-501f-4373-9f1d-8fdbff05c8e9
