Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are heading into their last weekend of campaigning in an extraordinary American presidential election on Saturday, with unpredictable results expected around the world.
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The Democratic vice-president, who could be the first female president of the United States, and the Republican billionaire, who dreams of returning to the White House, are in full verbal escalation.
The climate is particularly electric, with one political-media controversy per day and fears of violence after November 5, especially if the result is extremely close as all the polls predict.
This weekend, Kamala Harris will again be in the key states that will decide the fate of Tuesday’s election. In Georgia (south), North Carolina (southeast) and Michigan (north), she will try to convince the last undecided that she is the “antidote” to the former Republican president, as he said his running mate Tim Walz on Friday.
Friday evening, during three rallies in a row in Wisconsin, another crucial state in the Great Lakes region, she invited Americans to “turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump” who has upended American democracy and “we has exhausted”.
For his part, the populist tribune, with increasingly authoritarian rhetoric, convicted and indicted in a number of criminal and civil cases, is going to campaign rallies on Saturday in Virginia and North Carolina.
He should still paint a black picture of the United States, which would be “occupied” by millions of illegal migrants, “criminals” whom he promised to expel.
Women’s demonstrations are organized on Saturday in several American cities, while the defense of the right to abortion has been at the heart of the campaign and the Democrats are counting on their votes.
Saturday morning on Fox News, the former president attacked an election ad showing women voting for Kamala Harris without apparently telling their husbands.
“Can you imagine a wife not telling her husband who she is voting for?” Donald Trump said. “This is ridiculous.”
He also described the employment figures – published the day before and less good than expected – as a “gift” for his campaign, even if experts point to a temporary fluctuation.
Friday in Michigan, the billionaire accused the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of having failed economically.
He predicted a “1929-style depression” if his rival is elected.
For the conservative ex-president, his rival “hates” the Americans, while according to the current vice-president who is campaigning in the center, his opponent is “unstable and obsessed with revenge” for the 2020 election that he never admitted to having lost.
Until the last day, the 60-year-old vice-president and the 78-year-old former president will be on the campaign trail: Monday evening, she will be in Philadelphia in the crucial state of Pennsylvania and he in Grand Rapids in Michigan.
The election is Tuesday, a non-working day in the United States, and more than 72 million Americans have already mailed or cast their ballots in advance.
The 2024 campaign, scrutinized around the world and particularly in Europe and the Middle East, was extraordinary: in the space of a few weeks this summer, President Joe Biden, 81, threw in the towel and left M’s placeme Harris while Mr. Trump was the target of two assassination attempts.
Since then, the two adversaries have done everything to appeal to women, young people and African-American, Arab-Muslim and Latin-American electorates.
Mme Harris has garnered support from business and political circles – including former Republican leaders – as well as superstars in film, music and sports, such as these days Cardi B, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez and LeBron James.
And on Saturday, the former first lady, the ultra-popular Michelle Obama, will be campaigning in Philadelphia, with singer Alicia Keys.
Tuesday’s election could be so close, in a politically fractured country, that it could be days before a definitive national result.
Donald Trump’s entourage has already begun to fuel rumors of irregularities, even “cheating”, committed during voting operations.
