US election: Merkel and the German media celebrate Biden victory

Germany’s Sunday papers are splashed with the news of Joe Biden’s victory in the US election, which was called for him and his vice-president Kamala Harris on Saturday (7 November). The country has for four years been on the receiving end of criticism from Donald Trump, and the media front pages are jubilant this morning that his time at the helm of the US is at an end.

Leaders across the EU were quick to offer congratulations to president-elect Biden, and German chancellor Angela Merkel’s was no exception. Her office tweeted her congratulations in the hours after Biden was declared the winner, saying:

“Congratulations! The American people have decided. Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United states of America. I wish him luck and success with all my heart and also congratulate Kamala Harris, the first elected female vice-president of her country. I'm looking forward to working with president Biden. Our transatlantic relationship is indispensable if we are to tackle the biggest challenges of our time."

German foreign minister Heiko Maas also tweeted: "We look forward to the cooperation with the next US government. We want to invest in a new transatlantic beginning, a New Deal."

Maas said last week that Trump’s claims of election fraud were irresponsible, and that the country “is more than a one-man show.”

READ MORE: US election: Merkel's foreign minister says Trump's claims 'adding fuel to fire'

Germany’s top current affairs magazine, Der Spiegel, showed Joe Biden in his mask putting the head back on the Statue of Liberty with the words ‘Make America Great Again.’

“It’s Joe Time” said the Europe’s largest tabloid Bild on Saturday evening. Bild on Sunday’s front page said “Everyone knows he lost – only Trump doesn’t get his defeat.” And “Biden celebrates and the world exhales.”

In an interview with Bild on Sunday, Wolfgang Schäuble, president of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) said that he had met Biden many times when he was Obama’s vice-president and had hope that Biden will be the president to close the divide in America.

“He listens to others and takes an interest in them,” Schäuble said. “One feels that he himself has had to overcome the blows of fate, like the death of his son, and is very empathetic.”

Tagesspiegel daily newspaper says of Biden and Harris: “They are writing history,” while the Süddeutsche Zeitung proclaims: “From now on, it is about America again.”

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung broadsheet paper runs an op-ed stating “Trumpism is alive.” Author Majid Sattar notes that Trump had won over 69 million votes in the middle of a pandemic, he will fight on and his movement will remain.”

READ MORE: A Biden victory 'won't solve Europe's problems'

Watch: Biden beats Trump