After Obama’s celebrity welcome in Prague, reality sets in
By Andrew Yurkovsky, IANSSaturday, January 16, 2010
VIENNA - In Eastern and Central Europe, US President Barack Obama may not have the same level of rock star appeal he enjoys in certain parts of the world. But after one year in office, he and his policies have gotten a generally positive, if sometimes sceptical, hearing from the region’s people and opinion-makers.
Right now, Obama’s approval ratings in the US are hovering around 50 percent. Attitudes by Europeans toward the US president, however, were soaring in the middle of 2009. A survey by the German Marshall Fund, conducted in June and July and published in September, found that 86 percent of West Europeans had a favourable view of Obama’s policies, while only 60 percent of Central and East Europeans shared that view.
Still, the percentage of Central and East Europeans supporting US policies was higher than it had been in 2008 during the previous US administration.
And when Obama has the opportunity to face foreign audiences, the effect can be mesmerising - even among usually sceptical Central Europeans. Crowds in Prague in April greeted Obama as a celebrity when he unveiled his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Those who came to hear Obama’s speech in the city’s Hradcanske Square showed childish excitement, saying the president’s message and manner were a change of pace from typically grey European politics. “I think that if Bush were here this many people would not have shown up,” one teenager told a reporter.
But in the summer, some prominent political leaders - including former Polish president Lech Walesa and former Czech president Vaclav Havel - didn’t cut the new president any slack. In an open letter, they expressed concern about the new administration’s commitment to the missile shield, which was to have been based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
In September, these doubters’ worst fears were realised.
The US administration decided to abandon plans for the missile shield in favour of a new project to guard against what it said were more immediate threats of mid-range missiles. Some Czech politicians have likened the decision to a betrayal. In Poland, where missile interceptors were to be based, politicians of the left and the right traded blame for the decision.
But Washington soon moved to placate the Poles and the Czechs, promising to include them in plans for the new shield.
In the general, the mood among regional leaders toward Obama might be described as hopeful scepticism.
There are harsh critics. These include Czech politician Alexandr Vondra, who has said that the US president “talks a lot but does not lead much, and he does not keep his word”.
But others have offered a gracious, wait-and-see approach. Serbian President Boris Tadic expressed the hope that Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in October, would “be a guarantee of future politics of peace”.
Lech Walesa, himself a recipient of the award when he was the leader of the Solidarity trade union during Communist rule, said that Obama’s Peace Prize might be intended to encourage action rather than honor accomplishments.
“He (Obama) is proposing, he’s started, but he still must act,” Walesa said.
