Status: December 9th, 2021 4:44 p.m.
US President Biden opened the “Summit for Democracy” with a clear warning. Autocrats are on the advance worldwide, he warned – and called for more cohesion. The US wants to strengthen democracies with a three-digit million amount.
At the start of his two-day virtual “Summit for Democracy”, US President Joe Biden warned that democratic systems around the world were in danger. He is mainly concerned with the advance of autocrats in many countries. Globally, the trend is “largely going in the wrong direction”. “We are at a turning point,” said Biden.
Autocrats justified repressive practices “as a more efficient way of meeting today’s challenges,” warned the US president. He called for the preservation of common values. “We must stand up for justice and the rule of law, for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion – for all innate human rights of every individual,” he demanded.
Increased fight against corruption
Action must be taken now to stop and reverse the global democratic dismantling. For that it needs “champions”. Biden announced an American “Democratic Renewal Initiative” to strengthen democracies worldwide. According to the White House, the US intends to provide up to 424 million US dollars for this in the coming year.
The money is to be used, for example, to support freedom of the press or fight corruption, said Biden. It should also be ensured that marginalized groups have a say in democracies. The US also wants to work with partner countries to counter the authoritarian censorship of the Internet.
Criticism of invitations
By organizing the two-day conference, the USA wants to underpin its leadership role in a struggle for existence between democratic and autocratic systems that it has denounced. In addition to activists and business representatives, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other heads of government are also invited.
There was criticism of the White House invitation list prior to the online meeting. Some states where democracy is under pressure can be found there, others not. For example, Pakistan and the Philippines are included, but the NATO state Turkey and the EU member Hungary were left out. In contrast, Brazil’s right-wing radical President Jair Bolsonaro was invited.
The White House stressed that an invitation to the summit should not be equated with a seal of approval for democracy in the country. The criteria by which the states were selected remained unclear.