A Spanish Ole! for Obama

The paradox is that George Bush is ending his second mandate with more friends in Europe than when he started his Presidency in 2001. The wave of accession to the EU of ex-communist countries has strengthened the conservative pro-US camp (Poland, Czech Republic, etc.) and within “Old Europe” a group of “friendlier” governments have taken the reins of power. Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi illustrate this drift away from hostility to Washington, even though their motivations are very diverse: the principled pro-Americanism of the German chancellor is of a higher quality than that of some of her “bling bling” colleagues. And on the basis of her own policies Merkel is undoubtedly closer to the Democrats than to the Republicans.

In fact the most respectable pro-US European leaders will be happy to see President Bush gone, in particular because they see him as one of the major obstacles to the development of stronger transatlantic links. George Bush is the past and most European decision-makers have their eyes focused on the November 4 presidential elections. In recent weeks they have been looking for meetings with Barack Obama and John McCain’s advisers in order to assess what might be in store for the transatlantic relations after the inauguration in January 2009. In order also to build goodwill and connections.

On the left the hope is of course that Obama will win. In Spain socialist PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has spelled out his world views in a solemn speech pronounced last Monday in the magnificent setting of the Museo del Prado. With former UN general secretary Kofi Annan as a special guest acting as a guarantor of the Spanish government’s commitments, the Spanish premier expressed his hope that the US would play “a central role” in a new world order based on “efficient multilaralism”. Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero suggested who he might vote for when he mentioned that “we will not vanquish international terrorism if we approach that phenomenon as a war”. And when he added: “the Iran issue has to be solved with firmness but through dialogue”.

In short Barack Obama is the darling of the ruling Spanish socialists who hope that a new Democratic administration will restore the links that were shaken under the Bush presidency. And they bet that Spain has a lot to offer, in terms of her experience in the fight against terrorism, cooperation with Latin America and the dialogue with Islam, through Mr. Zapatero’s initiative of an “Alliance of civilizations”.

On Wednesday 18, according to El Pais, a Spanish socialist delegation was scheduled to fly to the US, headed by PSOE’s international relations secretary, Elena Valenciano, with the intention to meet the advisers of the two candidates, with a clear “bias” in favour of Barack Obama’s “whiz kids”. “Our heart beats for Obama”, a PSOE official told El Pais. According to the same sources, the PSOE’s secretary of organization José Blanco will attend the Democrats’ Convention in Denver in late August.