Does the violent invasion of the Capitol in Washington by pro-Trump activists while Congress met there to certify the victory of Joe Biden mark a weakening of American democracy?
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Jose Luis Magana / AP / SIPA
On Wednesday night, as the US Congress gathered to certify Joe Biden's presidential victory, pro-Trump activists broke into Capitol Hill.
Violence erupted in this symbol of American democracy after Trump once again hammered that victory was stolen from him, and resulted in the deaths of four people.
For the political scientist Marie-Cécile Naves, throughout his mandate, "Donald Trump will have thrived on cleavages and divisions, and Joe Biden's whole project will be to reconcile America".
Scenes of chaos.
An intrusion into the heart of the symbol of American democracy.
And shots fired.
On Wednesday in Washington, supporters of Donald Trump broke into the Capitol as the United States Congress met there to certify the victory of Joe Biden.
Earlier today, the outgoing president addressed his staunchest supporters, insisting that the residential election victory had been stolen from him, and called on the crowd to march to the Capitol to express their anger.
A call heard by tens of thousands of pro-Trump, causing violence in which four people died.
"Trump is the president of chaos", comments for
20 Minutes
Marie-Cécile Naves, political scientist specializing in the United States and author of
Feminist Democracy: Reinventing Power
(ed. Calmann-Levy) and
Trump, the revenge of the United States. white man
(Textual ed.).
Joe Biden has condemned an "insurrection", others evoke a coup.
How do you qualify this violent pro-Trump intrusion on Capitol Hill?
It was Trump who called on his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
And after the scenes that we have seen, the term “insurrection” is not too strong.
We saw an attempted putch, we must not minimize the facts or their magnitude.
These are acts of political violence, which left four dead, and which, through images and slogans, have an important "performative" power: this will undoubtedly have effects within the United States, but also in the United States. 'international.
What to expect now, for the days and weeks to come?
The White House issued a statement in which Trump says the transition to his successor will be in order, but he still does not recognize his defeat and persists in saying he won the election.
Therefore, and especially with Trump, we can expect anything!
We have seen him several times, especially in 2017 during the riots in Charlottesville: he condemned the violence committed but encouraged extreme right-wing groups.
On Capitol Hill it has gone a long way, so maybe he's worried about legal action.
But CNN said this Thursday morning that this situation should not be seen as an end, but as a beginning.
So there may be other events, encouraged and supported by Trump.
He has two weeks of mandate left before the inauguration of Joe Biden, it is not excluded that he will make new calls for rallies, even violence.
Moreover, he did not condemn the invasion of the Capitol, and he will never condemn the action of these supporters, whom he knows they devote to him total fervor.
What future - political in particular - can Donald Trump hope for?
What weight can he retain in the Republican Party?
Voices are being raised to resort to the 25th Amendment, remove him from office and prevent him from running for the 2024 presidential election. But with less than two weeks from the end of his term, is it really achievable?
And wouldn't that fuel the anti-establishment rhetoric dear to Trump?
I do not know the legal consequences.
On the other hand, politically, it is not said that the Republican Party is putting him aside.
A fringe still supports him: Seven senators voted after the attack on the Capitol against the certification of votes in Pennsylvania, and he still has support in the House of Representatives.
The reason is simple: Trump represents a reservoir of 74 million votes, this is his great strength.
Its voters cast a vote of adhesion: they adhere to its project of society.
It remains to be seen what Trump will want to do after his term in office.
Will he want to keep his influence within the party?
Or - and this is a strong hypothesis - will Trumpism continue to exist outside?
Especially in the media sphere, with why not the creation by Trump of a new media, a new university?
We must not forget that Donald Trump is a businessman, that he is in debt, and that he needs to revive his business and make his brand grow.
Clearly, he can, if he decides, spoil the life of the party.
What is the future for Republicans now?
It is a divided, weakened party, which risks being weakened for some time to come, even though Trump had managed to unite it for four years.
There is a Republican ideological foundation in Trump's policy, but the blank check given to conspirators, the use of fake news and political lies, the destabilization of democracy are all things that the Republican Party, in the long term, has every interest in getting rid of.
Because at the polls, it doesn't pay off.
We see it in Georgia, where Biden was elected and won two Senate seats.
Republicans lose a state that was historically theirs.
By wanting too much to satisfy pro-Trump voters, there is a risk of facing an even stronger electoral mobilization.
The challenge of the Republican Party is to succeed in uniting behind a project for a society which takes up the traditional contents of the Republican right and which seduces the pro-Trump, while detaching itself from Trumpism.
Because in less than two years, there will be the mid-term elections, where the House of Representatives will be completely renewed, where a third of the senators will put their seats back into play. And the Republicans cannot deprive themselves of this electorate acquired in Trump.
They are a tightrope.
Are these incidents on Capitol Hill undermining President-elect Joe Biden, or do they install him in his role as
Commander in Chief
?
And will he succeed in restoring confidence and unity?
It puts extra pressure on him, but he's ready.
He's a political sleuth, he's surrounded himself with a concrete team, which has nothing to do with the nickel-plated feet with which Trump surrounded himself.
And this is not the first time that Biden has called for unity, it is also partly on anti-Trumpism that he was elected.
His great speech of unity, he delivered at the time of his victory in November, calling for solidarity, for national unity.
Notions that we found in his speech on Wednesday evening.
Biden's whole project is going to be to reconcile this America that is extremely divided and polarized by Trump.
On the contrary, Trump has thrived on dividing lines: he has been the president of chaos, has never ceased to stir up violence.
American society has rarely been so divided.
Joe Biden will not be the providential man, but will give the momentum to make America a united nation, and that will take time.
Especially since it will have to deal with a Democratic party that is also divided, between its centrist wing and its progressive wing.
These are divisions that we have seen less in recent weeks, but which will quickly reappear.
Is American democracy damaged by this intrusion on Capitol Hill, and by this stolen election rhetoric hammered out by Trump?
Obviously, especially for a Nation which is posed as the first democracy on the planet and which offered this poor spectacle.
But American democracy is 250 years old, and it has seen others!
And the picture is not so gloomy: one should not equate the neo-Nazi far-right supporters who attacked the Capitol with the whole of the Trumpist electorate.
Moreover, while Trump has been striving to destroy American democracy for four years, she has resisted and has the means to recover.
She has shown that she is strong, with solid institutions.
Proof of this is, after the attack, Congress certified Biden's victory.
And the other proof of the democratic vitality of the United States is the enormous participation in the presidential election, which benefited from a strong activism on the ground.
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