2023-04-25 17:54:19
By announcing his candidacy for a second term in the 2024 United States presidential election, Joe Biden, 80, joined the narrow club of elected global leaders who are today in the 1980s or even the 1990s.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya is the oldest elected leader in the world, at the age of 90. Nicknamed the Sphinx because of his penchant for secrecy as well as because of his intractable personality, he ruled absolutely for 40 years this Central African country and violently silenced all political opposition.
Since his controversial re-election in 2018, he has only appeared on rare pre-recorded televised speeches.
In second place is the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who has headed the Palestinian National Authority since 2005 following 5 decades under Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, at the age of 87.
Although his term ended in 2009, the Palestinian president is still in office and his popularity has declined over the years. He is seen abroad as a moderate figure, and he is the main architect on the part of the Palestinians of the historic Oslo Accords signed in 1993, which laid the foundations for settling the conflict with Israel, but it has not been achieved a quarter of a century following the signing of the agreements.
In Africa, the age of leaders and their period of stay in power regularly break records. In Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has ruled the country since the end of 2017 following a military coup, is 80 years old. It is nicknamed “crocodile” because of its cruelty.
As for Teodoro Obiang Nguema, President of Equatorial Guinea since the coup 43 years ago, he is also 80 years old. He holds the world record for the length of time in power for a living head of state, excluding monarchs.
Alassane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast, has just turned 81. This economist adopted a promising policy of major works, but his election in 2020 with a very high result for a third term damaged his image, as the opposition accused him of being a “dictator.”
At the age of 81, Haji-Jingob has since 2014 headed Namibia, the vast semi-desert country in southern Africa that was one of the last countries on the continent to gain independence in 1990.
And from Africa to Europe, where the Irishman Michael D. Higgins is 82 years old, and he is the ninth president of Ireland. He was elected by direct universal suffrage, but without executive duties, and he began his second term of 7 years at the end of 2018. D. Higgins is known for his passion for poetry and his dogs that sometimes steal the spotlight from him in Formal occasions.
In Malta, President George Villa, 81, has also held an honorary position since 2019.
In Italy, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who enjoys great popularity and was elected in early 2015 by indirect universal suffrage by Parliament, celebrated his birthday No. (81).
Mattarella is seen as the main man who quietly solves Italy’s recurring political crises. He also represents Italy in the festivities, an opportunity to criticize the mafia that killed his brother in Sicily in 1980.
And following he repeated that he would not run for a second term, he accepted, in early 2022, to put himself “at the disposal” of his country for a second term of 7 years.
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