I could not start this blog without writing down some of my thoughts about one of the most important events of the last few years, that is the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. But at first, we are going to do a little history… As you might know, the 2003 dissensions between some European countries and the US left in Europe, and more specifically in France, a dark image of the US administration, and therefore, of the people who elected the president at this time… We all remember the political tensions at the United Nations between the “Coalition of the willing”, led by the US, and a group of countries opposed to a military intervention in Iraq, led by France. The following episode of the “Freedom fries” was an illustration of what the majority of Americans used to think back in this time : that we were not on their side when they needed us, and that we were not honoring the sacrifice made by thousands of young US soldiers during WWII to free us from the Nazis. Even worse, we were almost said to support terrorists. In brief, France was opposed to what America cherish more than anything : freedom.
“Today Baghdad… Tomorrow Paris”
As President Bush said when justifying the war, “diplomacy failed”, however not only with Iraq, but also with some of the most powerful countries in the world who also happen to be US allies.
As a consequence, the arrival of a fresh and intelligent man of consensus in the White House pleased most of the people on the Old Continent. Add the fact that Obama is a self-made black man, and the American dream was suddenly reborn in the head of everyone in Europe. The description I just made of President Obama is what first impressed me when I started to see him in the media every day. George W. Bush was for me the perfect American stereotype, with his Texan cow-boy look and his relationships in the oil business, and the contrast with the academic style of the Democrat candidate was as bright as possible. This good-looking Chicago lawyer seemed to be way more talented than his predecessor, and his ability to listen to people, along with his sense of humor (see his recent speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, on May 9th), made the difference with the maybe too conventional and “all-American” conservative war vet John McCain. As a result, the image of America changed throughout the world, and the antagonism between the methods of the former and the new administration is flagrant.
As a consequence, despite the fact that this President has never lived nor studied in Europe, contrary to many of his predecessors, he seems to be as highly, if not more esteemed here than in the US. I personally experienced the feeling of liking towards the man, feeling that prevails in the French population. Most people think he will be more diplomatic and more careful towards the rest of the world, and especially towards US allies. I saw people on the streets wearing Obama shirts as if they were on the inauguration speech in DC, and American flags flourished in the (numerous) souvenir shops of Paris.I also noticed the understandable identification of the black people with the African-American population. Many of them believe that if the most powerful man in the world is black, racism will certainly tend to disappear faster, and everyone sure hope so (see this article, from the NY Times website).
The French "Obamania", was described in Libération newspaper
But as always, some people tried to take advantage of that situation... Except from the former socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, who told that she had "inspired" Obama for his campaign, there has been a move of many left-wing politicians wondering “where the French Obama is”. I think we should not forget the fact that even if a not insignificant part of the population in some major French cities is of African origins, the story of colored people in France in completely different than in the US, where they live since the 17th century. Indeed, the first African immigrants arrived in France around the 1960s, at first from the former colonies of North Africa. I don’t mean that there will never be a French president with African origins, but certainly not in the upcoming years…
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