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The parallels are striking: the president declares himself the winner, although the election results do not prove it. The people of the country take to the streets to demonstrate so that their voice is recognized. And finally, there is a loud cry from the Western world that the incumbent should acknowledge the democratic reality.
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To what country does it refer? Alexander Lukashenko recently made international news with this focus in Belarus.
And at least similar, if not entirely comparable cases are known of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, and Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia. But now it is the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, who stubbornly refuses to recognize the electoral result in his country.
By blocking Joe Biden from entering the White House, the current president is clearly breaking with longstanding democratic traditions in the United States.
Internationally, it is particularly racy: Time and again, US politicians have insisted on foreign cases like Belarus for the results of free and fair elections to be recognized. The raised index finger was there quickly. The fact that they now have to look at the national level with this demand is a first.
The damage done by the political bulldozer Trump is immense in domestic and foreign policy. And experts assume it will certainly last a long time: Trump’s refusal to budge will “create a new model” for like-minded populists in Europe and elsewhere, says Ivan Krastev of the New York Times.
“When Trump won in 2016, the lesson was that democracy could be trusted,” analyzes the Central and Eastern European expert from the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences.
“Now they will no longer trust democracy and will do everything possible to stay in power.” The political scientist speaks of a “Lukashenko scenario” in which the heads of government or presidents hold pro forma elections, but never lose again.
Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama, even goes one step further. He describes “the president’s refusal to accept the election results” as “his parting gift to autocrats around the world.”
And Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy calls Trump’s behavior absolutely unprecedented among heads of state and government of Western democracies: “Even in military dictatorships, rulers in most cases recognize the results of elections. and they retire when they lose them. “
[Mehr zum Thema: Vom Weißen Haus ins Gefängnis? Was dem US-Präsidenten im Fall seiner Abwahl droht (T+)]
It is true that Trump, like many autocrats, has harassed citizens for years with false statements and genuine lies. But the presidential election was fair and free, mostly thanks to a free press, a strong and independent judiciary, and absolutely reliable electoral officials. Furthermore, the Democratic Party in the United States is almost as broad as Trump’s Republicans as an opposition party.
In the case of Belarus, by the way, it was US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who criticized President Lukashenko with particular clarity. He believed that the victory was simply a fraud.
“We have opposed the declaration of president. We know what the people of Belarus want. They want something different ”. After Biden’s victory in the US elections, these words now have a new meaning.
