Joe Biden, a year ago the inauguration: "Historical progress". But the polls don't reward him
The American president relaunches: "America is on the move again". But between Covid, inflation and Trump's shadow, things are not going well
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On the eve of his first year in the White House and while the polls are seeing his satisfaction plummet , US President Joe Biden says he is satisfied: "A year later, America is on the move again."
The economy, according to him, has made "historic progress": a year ago "it was on the verge of collapse" while now it can boast an unemployment rate of 3.9% (against 6.4%) and the record 6.4 million new jobs (against the loss of 9.4 million). Also good on the pandemic front, with 74% of adults fully vaccinated (compared to 1% a year ago) and 95% of schools open (compared to 46%). The successes also boasted include the relaunch of the American leadership on the international level, an anti Covid aid plan of 1,900 billion and that on infrastructures of 1,250 billion.
DIVIDED AMERICA - Yet, when he arrived at the White House, he had promised to pacify a wounded and divided nation. He failed, and not just his fault. The shadow of the former president has never dissolved, on the contrary: Donald Trump seems ready to take to the track for 2024 and does not give up an inch, continuing to ride the false accusations of electoral fraud.
The Covid cavalcade did not help the president either: Biden had recklessly promised that July 4, 2021 would be the independence day from the virus. It hadn't reckoned with the Delta and Omicron variants, which plunged the country back into the emergency with record data. And in recent days the Supreme Court has canceled the vaccine requirement in large companies. Now Biden is betting on home tests and free masks, but that's not enough.
On the international level, too, the withdrawal from Afghanistan , with the country plunged back into chaos, and the submarine crisis with France has paid dearly. Also on the horizon are the dangerous tug-of-war with Russia over Ukraine, the new cold war with China, the stalemate in nuclear negotiations with Iran and the resumption of missile launches by North Korea.
Even the vaunted economic recovery is poisoned by expensive gasoline and 7% inflation, after 40 years at the latest.
TOWARDS THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS - The president now has just over a month to change course and launch a reset, up to the March 1 State of the Union address in front of Congress. Then it will be too late to avoid a rout in the November Midterm election, where Republicans - already ahead in voting preferences - could take over both houses of parliament by turning it into a lame duck.
(Unioneonline / D)