Welcome, Mr. Trump

How time flies, and how we continue to be astonished by aberrant political events. How the most extravagant president in contemporary U.S. history has untangled himself from Russiagate and the obvious signs that he has tried to obstruct justice, yet continues undaunted on his path. He is already preparing for reelection in 2020, when we have yet to digest his unexpected arrival at the White House in 2016. But first, he will defuse the trade wars that he has unleashed. Promoting the impeachment of the president by Congress divides the Democrats. Impossible to achieve, a moral victory for some, but a political defeat is simply a defeat.

Trumpism takes shape in Spain as the far-right political party, Vox, enters parliament. The same walls that protect us from immigrants, the same contempt for the media, women as second-class citizens, competition over who shouts the loudest, weapons for all and the “Reconquest” versus “Make America Great Again.” At the end of May, we will see more of the same in the European elections with the New York millionaire’s top students. Welcome, Mr. Trump.

The U.S. is in preelection mode, with 20 Democratic candidates already running in the primaries. The American presidency frequently obeys the law of the pendulum, which benefits polar opposites. After Obama and Donald Trump, who will be next? Who will bring the U.S. back to the multilateral world? There are a large number of female Democratic candidates, socialist Bernie Sanders is running again, and for the first time there is an openly gay candidate, the mayor of a small city in Indiana who hopes to restore Christian values.

After months of doubt, finally, a classic within American politics, Joe Biden, with 36 years as a senator, eight years as vice president to Obama and two failed presidential runs, has declared his candidacy for the White House via a quality campaign video, mirroring the best of Obama. Biden, a Catholic, liberal-moderate and internationalist, declares that he is motivated by the desire to salvage the American republic from the national emergency that Trump has brought about.

Biden, the eternal second, is a politician from another era: he would be 78 years old when he begins his presidency. He arrives with heavy baggage: he supported the war in Iraq, and he had a terrible attitude 30 years ago when he chaired the Senate committee hearings over the case of alleged sexual harassment of black lawyer Anita Hill by then nominee to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. He has been denounced by various women as a bully. These are negative liabilities in the #MeToo era. The main problem for Biden will be winning the primaries, where the most liberal activists vote, at a time when the Democratic Party seems to be leaning toward a generational change fueled by more progressive stances. But if he can do it, he would be a good candidate to hamper eight years of Trump. Welcome, Mr. Biden.