It takes place in the United States an incredible anti-democratic coup attempt. Wednesday, January 6, the day Congress meets for final ratification of the election of Joe Biden to the presidency, Donald Trump unleashes a violent assault on the parliament building in Washington, inciting a crowd of his most fanatical supporters to action. The goal of the troublemakers is to occupy Congress for the whole night, in order to block its work and thus prevent the nomination of Biden, which Trump continues to contest, despite all his appeals related to alleged fraud have been rejected by the authorities for insufficient evidence.
Earlier in the afternoon, Trump addresses thousands of protesters gathered in front of the White House at his instigation: “I will never admit that I lost – he says – and if Pence does the right thing, I win. American elections are worse than in the Third World”.
Among his supporters there are also groups in camouflage, perhaps armed, who have prepared the assault on the congress by exchanging messages on social networks. Facebook closed (too late) the pages where the surprise raids were organized. At one o'clock some groups move towards the Congress, where the other insurrection is beginning, the one led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz and another dozen Trumpians, plus a hundred Republican deputies in the House determined to follow Trump by contesting the outcome of the elections to the last.
On the outside, the rioters press against a wholly insufficient police cordon and around three o'clock they manage to settle, penetrating inside the Congress, where they let themselves go to acts of vandalism and looting. Gunshots fired by police kill a protester, Ashli Babbit.
Only at half past three, Trump tweets: "No violence, remember that we are the party of law and order". Meanwhile, the mayor of Washington orders state of emergency and curfew starting at six; measures later extended for another 15 days, i.e. the time needed to conclude the presidential transition. At 45 they are mobilised 1.100 National Guardsmen to help a police in disarray (their absence at the time of the assault will be the subject of controversy, given that three days earlier the mayor of the capital had asked for them to be present).
At that point it comes another tweet from Trump, who does not condemn what happened at all: “You have been the victim of an injustice – he writes – I know how you feel. But go home, and do it in peace.”
Shortly after 16 he takes the floor Biden: “Democracy is fragile; an attack is underway on our freedom, on the rule of law, on popular sovereignty”. Republican Senator My Romney, a former candidate for the White House against Obama, has no doubts: "What is happening is Trump's fault". And the former president George W. Bush he increased the dose: "This is how the transfer of power takes place in the banana republics".
The episode is so serious that Trump's deputy, Mike Pence - called to chair the special session of Congress - writes a public letter to distance himself from the outgoing president, dissociating himself from the attempt to subvert the result of the popular vote with violence. "I love the Constitution - reads the text - and this does not give me the unilateral authority to decide which votes must be counted".
Not even the Republican group leader in the Senate gives Trump discounts, Mitch McConnell: “Woe to us if we create this dangerous precedent, whereby a party defeated in the elections uses Parliament to overturn the will of the voters. One day that would come back to haunt us."
In the end it is Pence himself who restores order, disobeying his superior and deploying the National Guard. Parliamentary leaders resume interrupted work late in the evening and reject the last appeals against Biden's victory just before midnight, officially proclaiming his election. A signal of a return to normality after hours of coup madness that has produced everything four dead and 13 wounded.
Regardless, in the end Biden comes out strengthened, because in the same hours he won the two senatorial seats in Georgia which give him a homogeneous majority in the two houses of Parliament.
Meanwhile, Trump was temporarily banned from major social media: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The outgoing President then published a statement that smacks of surrender: “While I totally disagree with the election result there will be an orderly transition to January 20th“, the day of Joe Biden's swearing-in and inauguration in the White House. “It's the end of the greatest presidential term in history, but it's only the beginning of our fight to make America great again. I have always said that we will continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes count."
"Violence is incompatible with the exercise of political rights and democratic freedoms", commented the Italian premier, Giuseppe Conte, who however never mentioned Trump, causing embarrassment in the majority. Words of condemnation have also come from all European leaders, from Merkel and Macron a Von der Leyen passing through JohnsonTrump's former friend.
Protests have also arisen from the world of American sport. Above all, the words of Doc Rivers, one of the most famous coaches in the NBA: "Can you imagine what would have happened today if all black protesters had broken into Congress?".
