American left-wing senator Bernie Sanders, former candidate for the White House, announced on Monday May 6 that he was a candidate for re-election to Congress, at the age of 82. “I am announcing today my intention to run for a new term,” said the elected representative from Vermont in a press release.
Bernie Sanders is known for having promoted socialist ideas for more than forty years, long considered utopian or inconceivable in the United States. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination to run for the White House in 2016, then in 2020. He had to throw in the towel against Joe Biden, during the Democratic primaries, in the middle of a pandemic.
Very popular among some young Americans, the senator from Vermont has since generally supported the policies pursued by his former Democratic rival. With one notable exception: Bernie Sanders has been very critical in recent weeks of the Biden administration’s support for Israel, denouncing the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza and the “atrocious policies” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The pro-Palestinian mobilization that is shaking American campuses “could be Biden’s Vietnam,” warned the independent senator, who fears that he will lose “not only young people, but also a large part of the Democratic base.” The new candidacy of Bernie Sanders is also part of lively debates around the aging of the American political class. President Joe Biden is 81 years old. Donald Trump, his Republican rival in the November presidential election, 77.
