World leaders react with horror to 'disgraceful' storming of US Capitol
World leaders have reacted with horror to the chaos that has consumed Washington, describing Wednesday’s insurrectionist attempt on the US Capitol building as “disgraceful”, “pitiful”, and “shocking”.
Prime ministers and presidents around the world urged US president Donald Trump and his supporters to accept the result of November’s presidential election. President-elect Joe Biden’s administration is set to be inaugurated in 14 days.
The US Congress on Thursday certified Biden as the next president, while a statement from Trump promised an “orderly transition” to a new administration even though “I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out.”
“A fundamental rule of democracy is that, after elections, there are winners and losers,” said Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. “Both have to play their role with decency and responsibility so that democracy itself remains the winner.”
Merkel said Trump had “not conceded his defeat since November, and that has prepared the atmosphere in which such violent events are possible”. The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, denounced the scenes as “the result of lies and yet more lies, of division and contempt for democracy, of hatred and rabble-rousing, including from the very highest level”. More
