PARIS (AP) – As the world watched American institutions shaken to the brink by an angry crowd, officials and ordinary citizens wondered: how fragile democracy is and how fragile they could bear their own political systems?
“If it can happen in the United States, it can happen anywhere,” said Gunjan Chhibber, a 39-year-old man who works for an American tech company in India, the world’s largest democracy. She stayed awake all night, watching and worrying at her home in Delhi as chaos unfolded in many time zones.
In Germany, whose modern system of government was fueled by successive U.S. administrations, Chancellor Angela Merkel was unusually blunt on Thursday, drawing a direct line from President Donald Trump’s refusal to grant his electoral defeat to the atmosphere that provoked the assault on the United States Capitol. potential followers.
“A fundamental rule of democracy is that, after the election, there are winners and losers. Both must play their part with decency and responsibility for democracy itself to remain the winner, ”Merkel said.
Eva Sakschewska, a German who followed the news closely, said the events in Washington were almost inconceivable.
“One can only fear how far this can go when populists come to power and do these things,” he said. “You know that in the United States democracy has a long history and it’s something like that, yes, it’s scary.”
Even the United Nations offered the kind of declaration normally reserved for fragile democracies, expressing sadness and calling on unidentified political leaders to promote respect for “democratic processes and the rule of law.”
In Iraq, where the violent US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 sparked years of sectarian conflict and a deeply flawed democracy, many watched and marveled at the scenes unfolding in Congress.
Iraqis have suffered for years under power-sharing agreements between competing elites divided into sectarian lines. Junk arrangements are common to avoid political paralysis and democratic ideals have been tainted by an ingrained patronage system through which state jobs are distributed in exchange for support. Political parties also have affiliated militias that wield significant power on the street. From afar, violence in Washington had a despicable familiarity.
“Iraq is asking the US regime to respect the principles of democracy, or will intervene militarily to overthrow the dictator,” said Mustafa Habib, a well-known Iraqi analyst and researcher, in a tweet mocking Washington’s actions in the foreign.
Venezuela, which is under US sanctions, said the facts showed that the United States “suffers what they have generated in other countries with its policy of aggression.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has survived US-backed opposition efforts to oust him despite allegations of human rights abuses, civil unrest and a humanitarian crisis that has forced millions to flee the oil-rich country. .
“We exported so much democracy that we have none left,” Palestinian-American scholar Yousef Monayyer wrote on Twitter, the Trump-favored social network until it was shut out of it last Wednesday.
His comment was joined by the growing tension of sarcasm that limited the frequency of those who had long resented the perceived American tendency to punish other countries for less than perfect adherence to democratic ideals.
This time, however, it was an attempt by Americans to stop a peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden after a democratic election in a country that many in the world have seen as a model of democratic governance.
In China, which has had constant frictions with Washington over trade, as well as military and political issues, people were scathing in their criticism of Trump and his supporters, citing both the coronavirus pandemic and the action of the people.
Communist-ruled China has long accused the U.S. of hypocrisy in its efforts to promote democracy and defend human rights abroad.
The Communist Youth League posted a photo montage of Capitol violence on its Twitter-like Weibo microblog with the caption, “The Sixth, the United States Congress, a more beautiful place to behold.” This seemed to mock the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, for her June 2019 comments in praise of the sometimes violent anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
“The United States is not as safe as China, is it? I think Trump is a selfish, selfish person, ”said financial advisor Yang Ming.
Iran, which faces routine U.S. criticism for human rights violations and democratic values, jumped into chaos as proof of American hypocrisy.
The semi-official Fars agency called the United States a “fragmented democracy,” while Iran’s pro-government Twitter accounts hung up, circulating photos of crowds with hashtags that included #DownfalloftheUS.
The events tarnished the American insistence that it is a bastion of democracy for countries that only in recent decades have given up, in some cases, autocratic or military-controlled forms of government.
“The beauty of democracy?” with a shoulder emoji was the reaction tweeted by Bashir Ahmad, personal assistant to the President of Nigeria, who has seen several coups since independence, including a leadership decades ago by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected for the position in 2015.
Some legislatures in Asia (South Korea and Taiwan, for example) have sometimes been affected by fights and shouting parties, but democracies across the region are usually stable versions of European and American legislative models.
“It simply came to our notice then. I hope this serves as an opportunity for Americans to review their democracy, “Na HyunPil told the Korean House of International Solidarity, a Seoul-based NGO.” Trump is solely responsible for this incident. After four years in office, Americans find it difficult to tell other countries that their country is a good model for democracy. “
Several countries, allies and antagonists of the United States, issued travel warnings to their citizens, although coronavirus infections are spreading in the United States, arrivals from abroad are reduced to a minimum.
Ally after ally he expressed shock, followed by claims that democratic institutions in the United States would resist the turbulence.
“Throughout my life, the United States has championed some very important things: an idea of freedom and an idea of democracy,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “To the extent that he encouraged people to storm the Capitol, and to the extent that the president has constantly questioned the outcome of a free and fair election, I think it was completely wrong.”
But some, such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, warned that an attempt to stop a peaceful transition in what many consider the world’s oldest democracy proved that no place is immune and that the setback it is only reversed with difficulty.
“Democracy is never self-evident. You have to work every day. You have to win again every day. And that applies to all democracies, “he told German media.” And that’s why we know it starts as a very small thing. “
For others, less sympathetic, it was represented as one last sigh and belonged only to the Americans themselves.
“Obviously, American democracy is crippling on both feet,” said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament. “I say it without a shadow of haggling. The United States no longer sets a course and has therefore lost all rights to establish it and, even more, to impose it on others. “
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Associated Press journalists from around the world collaborated.