In the past week, Sergio Mattarella he was sworn in for his second term as president of Italy. He is 80 years old, and would leave office at 87. The jurist assured that he preferred to rest, but accepted re-election to “avoid putting the recovery from the pandemic at risk.” The elderly presidents they appear in many cases, including the Italian one, as a guarantee of trajectory. But they are also a brake on the necessary renewal of politics, although they provide a counter argument, a stop to the escalation of the ultra.
Elections
The same thing happened in the US elections with Joe Biden. The Democrat and former vice president of Barack Obama, positioned himself as the best option to defeat Donald Trump’s extreme right, but also to block the turn to the left within his own party. It is the argument of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaat age 76, to seek a third term to stop Jair Bolsonaro’s re-election.
And the explanation why both Israel and the United States support the government of Mahmoud Abbas in Palestine since 2005: it is feared that the election of the president’s successor will trigger a fierce fight. Abbas is 86 years old and in poor health, and his heir would be Majid Faraj, head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service.
Or failing that, the Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, is targeted. Faraj collaborated with the United States in capturing a top Al Qaeda operative, but Al-Sheikh is a more visible face of the government. In the opposition is Mohammed Dahlan, whom Abbas fired from his space but has become strong, through warfare, in Jenin, Qalandia (near Jerusalem), Al Am’ari, and other places in the West Bank. And Hamas is not sitting idly by either.
ages
the malay Mahathir Muhammad Until a few years ago, he was the oldest world leader: at the age of 92, he returned to public life and defeated his former political godson and outgoing head of government, Najib Razak, at the polls. Today Mohamed left office after various ailments and is fighting for his life.
His place as “older leader” is occupied by Paul Biya, President of Cameroon, who celebrates his 89th birthday on February 13, 2022: the country will be divided between the celebrations – his supporters maintain that he is a leader sent by God – and those who ask him to hand over power after 40 years of government. Biya took office in 1982, having previously served as prime minister since 1975. And he has won every election – tainted by fraud – since 1992: Maurice Kamto claims he won the 2018 presidential election and Biya stole his victory .
It is that the permanence in the position is usually a guarantee of abuses of power. A concern even in communist China, where the president Xi Jinping He is heading for his third term in 2022, although after turning 68, he reached the usual retirement age for the main leaders of the Communist Party: it is discounted that he will break tradition to remain leader in the National Congress of the Communist Party.
Experience
On the other side of the world, the Biden case is the most famous example of elderly leader: is 79 years old, and will have 83 in the final stretch of his mandate. If he wins re-election, he would leave office at the age of 87. The voice of experience. But not a few in the United States wondered during the campaign if there shouldn’t be an age limit on who can run for president. The Constitution already specifies a minimum age to become president: 35. But there is no upper limit.
And Americans today have the oldest president in their history, and also the oldest speaker of the House of Representatives: Nancy Pelosi, 81 years old. While, the current US Senate has the highest average age in his account, with 64.3 years. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest senator, is 88 years old and has held her seat from California since 1992.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is also 88 years old, having been in office for four decades (re-elected 90% of the time). The tally marks six senators who are in their 80s, and 23 in their 70s. And all with several mandates in tow. Symptom of what the liberal parties denounce as caste.
Exit
Of course, the 25th Amendment in the US allows a sick president to resign in favor of his vice president. Or that the vice and the majority of the Cabinet notify Congress that the president is not fit: both options were considered in favor of kamala harriswho is 57 years old.
But this process has its flaws: Presidents rarely believe they’re not up to the task, no matter how sick they are. And get the cabinet appointed by the president to participate in a “soft blow”, appears as an unlikely option. With this argument, the need to amend the Constitution to establish an age limit was postulated: Elon Musk he was one of those who publicly supported the measure.
The founder of SpaceX and Tesla wrote in a tweet: “Let’s set an age limit after which you can’t run for political office, maybe 70.” ronald reagan it went to Trump, the oldest person ever elected president, at 69. And by the end of his second term, many were already pointing to a decline in his mental abilities.
“Let’s be real, we have a lot of people in leadership positions who are old”, he acknowledged Nikki Hayley, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations. “We should seriously analyze the ages of the people who run our country,” said the Republican who resigned from her position at the UN due to short-circuits with Trump, and today appears as a rival in the Republican internal.
