Obama to Europeans: Help Us

The staging of Barack Obama’s unique public speech during his European tour could not have been more successful. When the Democratic candidate for the White House approached his podium to address an enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 people assembled in the Tiergarten Park in Berlin, on Thursday July 24, the rays of the setting sun lit up his face. At the foot of the Victory Column, one of the most celebrated monuments in the German capitol, and facing the Brandenbourg Gate, a symbol of German reunification, Mr. Obama gave a speech centered on the renewal of transatlantic relations, emphasizing the United States’ and Europe’s common interests. It is at this exact location that Germans demonstrated against the war in Iraq and American president George Bush’s politics in 2003. Thursday evening, when he arrived at the podium, the crowd took up his campaign slogan “Yes, we can!”

To start, Mr. Obama attempted to emphasize his image as a candidate in the electoral campaign: “I am a proud American citizen, and also a citizen of the world.” Then he addressed the inhabitants of the German capital, to whom he paid homage, evoking the American airlift of 1948: “Berliners did not give up.” Using the image of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he called them to fight “the walls between the richest and the poorest countries…between races and tribes, between indigenous peoples and immigrants, between Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

“New Bridges”

On the much anticipated theme of transatlantic relations, Mr. Obama said that it “is time to build new bridges.” “America has no better ally than Europe,” he stated, while recognizing that there have been disagreements between the United States and the Old Continent in the past. During his meetings several hours earlier with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, he emphasized the importance of German-American ties.

At the same time, “true partnership and progress requires constant work and sacrifices.” At the time, there was no doubt that the Democratic candidate was thinking of Afghanistan. Certainly in his speech, he settled for urging Europeans to pursue their commitment in this region: “America cannot do it alone. The Afghan people need our troops and yours,” he insisted. But beforehand, his advisors had made it understood that he hoped for reinforcements or a redeployment of a contingent of soldiers.

His call in favor of a “world free of nuclear weapons” particularly satisfied the public. Just as the mention of the end of the war in Iraq did.

Mr. Obama did not forget the fight against global warming, citing Germany as the model: “All of the world’s nations, including mine, must seriously reduce CO2 emissions, as your country has done,” he declared.

Conscious of the United States’ unpopularity in Europe during the past few years, Mr. Obama implicitly mentioned “the errors made” by the Bush team. “I know that my country is not perfect,” he explained, while being careful not to site the current American government.

In the crowd mostly composed of young people, reactions varied. “It was fairly flat, with few surprises and little pep,” complained Eric Heiss, a 33 year old engineer who emphasized, however, that he admired the Democratic candidate. On the other hand, Sascha Hahn, a young high school graduate, was delighted: “He has a way of expressing himself that is very convincing; it is great that he emphasized Europe’s and the United States’ common interests,” he said. The German political world’s reaction was also rather positive: “The young Senator embodies charisma and authority,” commented Edmund Stoiber, a former Bavarian Minister (CSU). “It was a speech from a citizen of the world,” affirmed Gert Weisskirchen, a Social Democrat Deputy. For the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit (SPD), whom Mr. Obama met in the afternoon, this speech “is the sign that there is a new focus in American politics.”