We Are Almost American

Barack Obama’s victory is synonymous with happiness and the French political class welcomes his election.

Among the first statesmen who reacted to Obama’s election, Nicolas Sarkozy (who had never hidden his preference for the Democrat candidate) conveyed his congratulations to the 44th president of the United States, welcoming the “determination to makes changes, opportunity and optimism”. “This message from the American people finds echoes far beyond your boundaries,” he claimed, pleading for renewed cooperation between France and Europe with Washington.

In the words of the Prime Minister, François Fillon, the political classes, either left or right winged, warmly praised an “historical” election.

Obamaniacs

“Thanks to their votes, Americans have sent to the world a message of opportunity and optimism”, said Jacques Chirac (former French president). However, “President Obama will have to live up to the hope he created on both sides of the Atlantic”, moderated the General Secretary of the UMP (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle: the President’s party), Patrick Devedjian. “Let’s not be mistaken, Obama’s presidency won’t be magical”, added the socialist deputy Claude Bartolone, “the signal sent to the world is a powerful one. America wants to change”.

Even though there are also likely to be feelings of disillusion, France in general woke up on November 5 with a feeling of almost being American.

Many other reactions followed: it’s a “message of hope” for Betrand Delanoé (Mayor of Paris), a tribute to a “halfcaste America” for Ségolène Royal (member of the Socialist Party), and for Martine Aubrey (member of the Socialist Party) “Martin Luther King’s dream coming true”. The main leaders of the Socialist Party also had their say. The First Secretary of the Socialist Party recalled that “Obama is the president of the United States, not of the whole world”.

The only Black woman in the government, Rama Yade, State Secretary to Human Rights, confessed to an “emotion that makes me say that if life has to be so, then it’s worth living it”.

“Today, the Black community in France is looking towards the United States where the American dream is on its way again”, said Patrick Lozès, president of the CRAN (Conseil Représentatif des Organisations Noires: Representative Council of the Black Organizations), and he asked Nicolas Sarkozy “not to ignore this urgent demand on equality”.

Marie-Georges Buffet (Communist Party) agrees that “for people fighting against racism, discrimination and equality, there will be a ‘before November 4’ and an ‘after November 4’, 2008”. Christiane Taubira, the first black candidate at the Elysée and from Guyana, expressed a rather pessimistic note pointing out that, “None of the two major parties in France, the UMP and the PS, are today able to achieve what the Democrat party in the United States has achieved.”