On the strength of the spectacular recovery of the health situation in the United States, President Joe Biden will celebrate, Sunday, July 4, a national holiday in the air of victory against the Covid-19.

The American president thus wished to invite to the White House a thousand caregivers, exposed employees, soldiers and their families, for a gathering that was still unimaginable last year.

Because it is indeed the "independence vis-a-vis the virus" that Joe Biden, 78 years, intends to proclaim, with grills then fireworks fired above the Mall, the immense esplanade of the center of Washington, in spite of the related concerns. with the highly contagious Delta variant.

In one year, the turn has been spectacular: from the country hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than 600,000 deaths, the United States has become a model of health recovery and economic rebound.

"Americans have good reason to party," said Jeff Zients, coordinator of the fight against Covid-19 for the White House.

And Joe Biden wanted to be at the forefront of this movement, tirelessly pleading for the wearing of masks and vaccines, while launching a pharaonic stimulus plan of 2,000 billion dollars, never seen before.

The White House wants to make people forget that its vaccination goal, namely a first dose administered to 70% of the adult population, will be narrowly missed.

Delta variant

"We have reduced the proportion of people who get sick, who die from Covid-19, by 90%," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"In six months, we have accomplished a lot more than most people expected."

However, the authorities are monitoring the emergence of the Delta variant, which could soon become the most present in the country, especially since certain regions, in the south-east or in the center, remain very poorly vaccinated, at only 30%, and therefore particularly vulnerable.

After the celebrations, beware of difficult tomorrow.

Because fighting the pandemic and relaunching the first economic engine of the planet are just two challenges among others for the oldest president ever elected by the Americans, at the head of a country crossed by multiple and deep fractures.

So much so that Allan Lichtman, professor of history at American University, believes that managing the economic and health crisis "was probably the least difficult task" of a Joe Biden confronted with an always excited Donald Trump and a Republican opposition which refuses any compromise on most issues.

Not even to mention foreign policy issues: the great diplomatic and technological duel with China, the tensions with Russia, the reestablishment of links neglected by Donald Trump with traditional allies, the tensions with Iran ...

And more broadly the question of the interventions, in particular military, of the United States in the conflicts of this world.

Iran

A very symbolic step, all American and NATO troops thus left Bagram air base, the largest in Afghanistan.

But the time is not for a general withdrawal.

Joe Biden has toughened his tone against Tehran, by ordering raids against pro-Iran groups on the Syrian-Iraqi border a few days ago.

On the home front, after the shattering announcements, we will have to really put on track a gigantic infrastructure project supposed to boost employment and accelerate the energy transition, when heat spikes and fires follow one another at a sustained pace.

Will it be enough for Joe Biden to continue playing, as he has done since the start of his mandate, the card of unity, empathy, personal anecdotes distilled behind his iconic sunglasses?

Because the Republicans, already in battle order for the legislative mid-term elections of November 2022, cry out for interventionism and wave the specter of an explosion in taxes.

When the left wing of the Democratic camp would like to go further.

The confrontation with the Republican camp is therefore not the only element to be taken into account for this veteran of political games that is Joe Biden, if he intends to preserve a popularity rating anchored above 50%.

A level never reached by Donald Trump.

With AFP

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