Published on Monday, September 27, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Europe to Bush: Go Away
Even British Prefer Kerry for President
by Vivienne Walt
PARIS -- "Why Bush must be beaten," screamed the headline of Le
Nouvel Observateur, a left-leaning French newsweekly. Smaller type
above the U.S. president's half profile provided the answer: "His
re-election will be a catastrophe for the world and for America."
That sentiment may have been expressed more bluntly than the opinions
of many Europeans, yet it captured the passions on this continent
over who will occupy the White House come January.
Poised halfway between the political wrangling in Washington over the
war in Iraq and the suicide bombs and kidnappings in Baghdad,
Europeans have rarely felt so involved in a U.S. presidential race.
Many Europeans, analysts and regular citizens alike, argue that their
own security is increasingly at risk, while violence spirals in Iraq
and anti- Western hostility hardens in Europe's backyard -- the Arab
world.
Some on the continent have suggested, only half-jokingly, that with
one superpower remaining in a globalized world, Europeans ought to
have a say in who should be America's next president.
"Americans will choose their president, and the rest of the world
will have to live with that decision," said Bernhard May, a senior
analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. "All we
can do is talk to people."
Perhaps mirroring sentiments on the other side the Atlantic,
Europeans who dislike Bush are not necessarily strong supporters of
John Kerry.
"Europe is get-rid-of-Bush country, which is not quite the same as
Kerry country," said Guillaume Parmentier, head of the Center on the
United States at the French Institute for International Relations in
Paris.
He said the continent's hostility toward Bush began long before the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, dating back to Bush's decision in 2001 to
reverse President Bill Clinton's support for the Kyoto Protocol on
global warming -- a cherished cause for many European politicians.
"Iraq just made it worse," Parmentier added.
Yet European's good-guy, bad-guy approach to the presidential race is
simplistic, say some analysts. "In substance, there is no such
black-and-white picture," said May, a specialist on German-American
relations.
May points out that Kerry has already made clear his belief that
Europe should participate more in Iraq's reconstruction. The
Democratic candidate has called for sending European troops to help
with January's elections in Iraq. The county's first democratic
elections will probably require thousands of peacekeeping troops to
secure election monitors and polling sites amid escalating violence.
Europeans might find it hard to provide such help, because tens of
thousands of their soldiers are already deployed in Afghanistan and
the Balkans. Yet it would be harder for the continent's leaders to
refuse the man they greatly prefer for president over Bush, says May.
"If Kerry is elected, he'll present us with this challenge perhaps in
his very first week in office," May said. "Bush won't put the same
kind of pressures on Europeans to help out. He's been rebuffed
before."
A survey published this month by the Program on International Policy
Attitudes in Washington, which conducts polls on global issues, found
that Europeans overwhelmingly opposed Bush's re-election. Kerry was
the favored candidate even in Britain, the Bush administration's
closest ally. There, 47 percent of those interviewed said they would
choose Kerry, compared with 16 percent for Bush.
Not surprisingly, anti-Bush feelings were strongest in countries
whose governments have based their foreign policies on refusing to
join the U.S.- dominated coalition in Iraq. In Germany, 74 percent
said they would back Kerry, compared with 10 percent for Bush, while
in France only 5 percent said they would vote for Bush, and 63
percent said they supported Kerry.
Both French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder rejected Bush's requests to support military action in Iraq
last year and have staked their leadership in Europe on that stance.
In Spain, Kerry's lead over Bush was only slightly narrower: 47 to 7
percent. Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, won
election last March almost entirely on the promise to withdraw
Spanish troops from Iraq. Zapatero's predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar,
was a frequent White House visitor and had a growing personal
relationship with Bush at the time he was ousted.
Europe's complex feelings about U.S. politics are hardly new. The two
continents have for centuries looked to each other for cultural
inspiration as near-mirrors of each other through the years. But this
year's campaign has brought a new tension over Americans' political
choices.
"There's this usual tradition of a love-hate relationship," said
Jean- Gabriel Fredet, one of two journalists who wrote the
mid-September Nouvel Observateur cover story pleading for Bush's
defeat. "But now there's a growing anxiety about the world's sole
superpower," he said in an interview. "Excuse the cliche, but it's
true."
Fredet's article listed numerous reasons why Bush should go:
"unprecedented" American isolationism since 2000; "unequaled
arrogance" in Bush's leadership style; intolerant religious fervor;
and the growing millions of Americans without proper health
insurance. On a continent with largely free health services, many
Europeans cite that last reason as their major dislike for the U.S.
system and are often dumbfounded about why Americans do not push
politicians for universal health care.
Despite the overwhelming support among Europeans, Fredet says that
few people expect dramatic changes if Kerry defeats Bush.
"Of course we believe Kerry will change things only in a slight way,"
he said. "But at least he will do it in a more polite way."
© 2004 San Francisco Chronicle
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