US Election Is Vote on Liberal Democracy, Germany’s Lindner Says

(Bloomberg) -- The outcome of the upcoming US election isn’t just a domestic issue, but a vote on the future of liberal democracies and Western values around the world, according to Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

“With all due respect — it is not only a decision for the United States and your people: It is a decision for the league of the liberal democracies, which share our common values,” he said in a speech at the University Club of New York. “So I would like to remind both partners and both camps — having allies is in the mutual interest of the US and your allies, including Germany.”

The US is the only “superpower” that has historically relied on partners — a “special element” of its policy compared to that of geopolitical rivals like Russia or China, Lindner said. 

Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in early 2022, the world has been confronted with a new geopolitical reality in which illiberal democracies are on the rise and attacking Western values, said Lindner, who also heads Germany’s pro-market Free Democrats. 

China knows that it won’t be as competitive as “the US over the next decades,” he said. “So they have a very strong interest to harm multilateralism and the international rule-based order — because then they can negotiate bilaterally” with Germany and others, Lindner added.

This is why the US and its allies have stand together to defend their common values, he said.

Lindner and his delegation are meeting investors in New York before joining the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington on Wednesday.

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