Biden's send-off in Germany: the tragic end of the "hand puppet"

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has supported Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the US presidential race.

"My friend Joe Biden has achieved a lot — for his country, for Europe, for the whole world. Thanks to him, transatlantic cooperation is close, NATO is strong, and the United States is a good and reliable partner for us. His decision not to nominate his candidacy deserves recognition," the head of the German government wrote on the social network, Deutsche Welle* (DW*) reports today.

The chairman of the Bundestag's international affairs committee, Michael Roth of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), called Joe Biden "a successful president to whom we in Europe and Germany owe a lot."

"It seems that in politics it is not easy to find the right moment to say goodbye. This end is tragic and does not meet the merits of his life," Roth wrote on his Twitter account.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach of the SPD argued that Biden "demonstrates greatness and deserves respect for this decision."

"Now the election campaign will be exciting again," he believes.

The decision of the current head of the White House was also supported by the leader of the opposition conservative CDU party, Friedrich Merz.

"Joe Biden has been serving the American people for more than five decades. His decision today deserves the deepest respect," Merz said.

Meanwhile, the head of the faction of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the Thuringian land parliament, Bjorn Hecke, disagreed with most of the leading politicians of Germany, notes DW*. In his opinion, Joe Biden was "a hand puppet for those who prefer to stay in the background."

"But if the hand puppet has no chance of crossing the finish line, despite the concentrated power of the media, she must leave. The world community has never realized better than in the person of the decrepit president of the United States that those who make decisions are not elected. And those who are elected do not decide anything," he wrote.

As reported by EADaily, 81-year-old Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he had decided to withdraw from the presidential race. On the social network X, he explained that he wants to focus on fulfilling his duties until the end of his term in the White House, and also called on Democrats to support the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris.

*An organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent