WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the “soul of America” is still at stake, as he prepared to deliver his farewell address to the nation before the return to power of Donald Trump.
The 82-year-old Democrat will make a primetime speech from the Oval Office of the White House in which he is expected to tout the legacy of his single four-year term.
In a letter previewing his remarks — due to be made at 8:00 p.m. US Eastern time (0100 GMT Thursday) — Biden took an implicit swipe at Republican Trump.
“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” Biden said in the letter.
“History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands,” he said. “We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are.”
Biden said the United States was stronger than four years ago, when it “stood in a winter of peril” after Trump’s chaotic first term, the Covid pandemic and what he called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden was sworn in just days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn his election loss.
He did not mention Trump by name — but his words clearly echoed previous speeches in which he said he decided to run in the 2020 election because America’s “soul” was at risk from Trump and his supporters, and that Trump was a threat to democracy.
The US president said he had asked the White House to also release a long list of what he termed his administration’s achievements, covering issues ranging from the economy to health care and climate change.
He said the United States had the “strongest economy in the world” and was bringing down inflation — even if public anger over the cost of living was a major factor in the Democrats’ election loss.
“I have given my heart and my soul to our nation,” said Biden, adding that it had been the “privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.”
The outgoing president has spent much of his final days in power trying to burnish his legacy.
Those efforts got a boost on Wednesday when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, for which Biden says he has been pushing for nearly a year and a half.
“I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come,” Biden said at the White House.
Trump, whose Middle East adviser was involved in the talks, also claimed credit for the “epic” accord.
Biden’s legacy was, however, damaged by his decision to run for a second term despite his age.
The Democrat was forced to drop out of the race last June after a disastrous debate against Trump, 78, who went on to a commanding victory over Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris.
In a farewell interview in the Washington Post published Wednesday, outgoing First Lady Jill Biden took a dig at the Democratic Party for pressing Biden to drop out.
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” she said.
Emotions ran high at the White House.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — part of a team that brought back regular media briefings after Trump ended them during his first term — fought back tears on her last appearance at the famous podium as she described the “honor of a lifetime.”
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Biden warns US ‘soul’ at stake with Trump on brink of power
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Biden warns US ‘soul’ at stake with Trump on brink of power
Danish ‘ghetto’ tenants hope for EU discrimination win
COPENHAGEN: The European Court of Justice is to rule Thursday whether a Danish law requiring authorities to redevelop poor urban “ghettos” with high concentrations of “non-Western immigrants and their descendants” is discriminatory.
The law means that all social housing estates where more than half of residents are “non-Western” — previously defined as “ghettos” by the government — must rebuild, renovate and change the social mix by renting at least 60 percent of the homes at market rates by 2030.
Danish authorities, which have for decades advocated a hard line on immigration, say the law is aimed at eradicating segregation and “parallel societies” in poor neighborhoods that often struggle with crime.
In the Mjolnerparken housing estate in central Copenhagen, long associated with petty crime and delinquency, residents are confident they’ll win the case they’ve brought before the European court.
They argue that using their ethnicity to decide where they can live is discriminatory and illegal.
“100 percent we will win,” insisted Julia, a resident who did not want to tell AFP her last name.
She said the law was solely about “discrimination and racism.”
Muhammad Aslam, head of the social housing complex’s tenants’ association, was more measured, saying he was “full of hope.”
- Long legal battle -
Mjolnerparken residents filed their lawsuit in 2020.
A preliminary opinion by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general in February called the policy “direct discrimination.”
If the court’s final ruling were to be along those lines, “we will be ... completely satisfied,” Aslam said.
The 58-year-old owner of a transport company who hails originally from Pakistan, he has lived in the estate since it was created in 1987.
He and his wife raised four children in their four-room apartment, children who are now a lawyer, an engineer, a psychologist and a social worker, he said proudly.
“I who am self-employed as well as my children are all included in the negative statistics used to label our neighborhood a ‘ghetto’, a parallel society,” he fumed, referring to official data on the number of non-Western residents.
In Mjolnerparken, the landlord took advantage of a renovation of the four apartment blocks, decided by residents in 2015, to speed up the transformation of the complex and comply with the new legislation.
All of the residents — a total of 1,493 in 2020 — had to be temporarily relocated so the apartments could be refurbished, a representative of the tenants’ association, Majken Felle, told AFP.
At the time, eight out of 10 people in Mjolnerparken were deemed “non-Western,” with people from non-EU countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe also falling into that category.
- ‘Disadvantaged ethnic group’ -
In order to avoid moving from one temporary apartment to another during the lengthy renovations, many residents agreed to just move to another neighborhood.
And those who are determined to return — like Felle, the Aslams and Julia — are at the landlord’s mercy.
“We were supposed to be temporarily relocated for four months, and now it’s been more than three years. Each year, they give us four or five different dates” for when the work will be completed, Aslam sighed.
In total, 295 of Mjolnerparken’s 560 homes have been replaced, with two apartment blocks sold and replaced by market-rate rentals out of reach for social housing tenants.
Experts say some 11,000 people across Denmark will have to leave their apartments and find new housing elsewhere by 2030.
“The effort to diversify neighborhoods might indeed be well intended. Nevertheless, such diversification cannot be achieved by placing an already disadvantaged ethnic group in a less favorable position,” the advocate general said in February.
“However, in the present situation, the Danish legislation does precisely that.”
Even if the court does not rule in residents’ favor on Thursday, the legal case could still continue in Denmark, Felle said.
But it would be a serious setback.
“That would mean that Denmark had carte blanche to adopt as many discriminatory laws as it wants,” said Lamies Nassri of the Center for Muslims’ Rights in Denmark.
“It affects the whole country when there are discriminatory laws, especially Muslim citizens who have been particularly marginalized and stereotyped.”
The law means that all social housing estates where more than half of residents are “non-Western” — previously defined as “ghettos” by the government — must rebuild, renovate and change the social mix by renting at least 60 percent of the homes at market rates by 2030.
Danish authorities, which have for decades advocated a hard line on immigration, say the law is aimed at eradicating segregation and “parallel societies” in poor neighborhoods that often struggle with crime.
In the Mjolnerparken housing estate in central Copenhagen, long associated with petty crime and delinquency, residents are confident they’ll win the case they’ve brought before the European court.
They argue that using their ethnicity to decide where they can live is discriminatory and illegal.
“100 percent we will win,” insisted Julia, a resident who did not want to tell AFP her last name.
She said the law was solely about “discrimination and racism.”
Muhammad Aslam, head of the social housing complex’s tenants’ association, was more measured, saying he was “full of hope.”
- Long legal battle -
Mjolnerparken residents filed their lawsuit in 2020.
A preliminary opinion by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general in February called the policy “direct discrimination.”
If the court’s final ruling were to be along those lines, “we will be ... completely satisfied,” Aslam said.
The 58-year-old owner of a transport company who hails originally from Pakistan, he has lived in the estate since it was created in 1987.
He and his wife raised four children in their four-room apartment, children who are now a lawyer, an engineer, a psychologist and a social worker, he said proudly.
“I who am self-employed as well as my children are all included in the negative statistics used to label our neighborhood a ‘ghetto’, a parallel society,” he fumed, referring to official data on the number of non-Western residents.
In Mjolnerparken, the landlord took advantage of a renovation of the four apartment blocks, decided by residents in 2015, to speed up the transformation of the complex and comply with the new legislation.
All of the residents — a total of 1,493 in 2020 — had to be temporarily relocated so the apartments could be refurbished, a representative of the tenants’ association, Majken Felle, told AFP.
At the time, eight out of 10 people in Mjolnerparken were deemed “non-Western,” with people from non-EU countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe also falling into that category.
- ‘Disadvantaged ethnic group’ -
In order to avoid moving from one temporary apartment to another during the lengthy renovations, many residents agreed to just move to another neighborhood.
And those who are determined to return — like Felle, the Aslams and Julia — are at the landlord’s mercy.
“We were supposed to be temporarily relocated for four months, and now it’s been more than three years. Each year, they give us four or five different dates” for when the work will be completed, Aslam sighed.
In total, 295 of Mjolnerparken’s 560 homes have been replaced, with two apartment blocks sold and replaced by market-rate rentals out of reach for social housing tenants.
Experts say some 11,000 people across Denmark will have to leave their apartments and find new housing elsewhere by 2030.
“The effort to diversify neighborhoods might indeed be well intended. Nevertheless, such diversification cannot be achieved by placing an already disadvantaged ethnic group in a less favorable position,” the advocate general said in February.
“However, in the present situation, the Danish legislation does precisely that.”
Even if the court does not rule in residents’ favor on Thursday, the legal case could still continue in Denmark, Felle said.
But it would be a serious setback.
“That would mean that Denmark had carte blanche to adopt as many discriminatory laws as it wants,” said Lamies Nassri of the Center for Muslims’ Rights in Denmark.
“It affects the whole country when there are discriminatory laws, especially Muslim citizens who have been particularly marginalized and stereotyped.”
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