Report United States-EU

Obama and Europe are facing the same battles

The newly re-elected US president and his European counterparts are facing the same challenge, writes the editor of Belgian daily Le Soir: to prove that a tolerant society and social solidarity are possible.

Published on 9 November 2012 at 16:14

On Tuesday Americans (re)elected a president who proposes to offer them a tolerant and mutually supportive society. It’s a society that Europeans have made their model for decades, and for which they claim paternity. Today, by a curious combination of historical circumstances, both sides must take up the same battle and the same challenge: to prove that this social project is realistic and still feasible.

The U.S. President will struggle to impose this solidarity on the large part of American society that does not want an institutionalised safety net for everyone and prefers rewards to be earned on merit. Europeans, for their part, must struggle to preserve their social security system for all, shaped differently in the details from country to country.

Which of Europe’s Obamas or Romneys will carry the day?

Obama and European leaders have an incentive to join their forces and their thinking to find a way to preserve their political project: the caring society where, as Obama said, everyone has a chance, whether rich or poor, black or white, sick or healthy, gay or straight. Their enemies are the same: yawning budget deficits, a profound economic and structural crisis, and the “Romneysation" of our societies. Individualism, fuelled by the economic crisis, is now expressing itself in the same way on both sides of the Atlantic, in a push to have social "benefits" distinguish between those who deserve them (workers) and all the others (the "assisted").

What solidarity? Can we afford this generosity? How could we modify it to make it affordable? Which of Europe’s Obamas or Romneys will carry the day? And can we believe, as Obama proclaimed, that it is still possible to make the compromises we need for society to move forward without being blinded by optimism? This is the very difficult dilemma of the moment. The good news since Tuesday is that the Europeans are not alone in still having faith – and in being forced to find a solution.

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Counterpoint

Obama’s reelection is a bad deal

Going against the view expressed by most European newspapers, România Liberă argues that the “reelection of Obama is bad news” for the United States and the world in general. The Bucharest daily looks back on the US President’s first term, and has particularly harsh words to say about his performance in the field of foreign policy —

The Obama administration has shied away from global leadership on the ideological pretext that American exceptionalism does not exist […] and insisted that the time has come for others to take charge of keeping order in the world.

România Liberă points out that Obama's image as a "great champion of ordinary people and small nations" is in flagrant contradiction with his realpolitik approach, which is based on agreements with major powers that do not take into acccount small and medium players —

Over the last four years, his [Obama’s] barely concealed, albeit fully demonstrated, contempt towards traditional US allies — Britain, Poland, Japan — and his almost total lack of interest in new allies in Eastern Europe, [...] have highlighted the cynical but naive approach of this president who believes he can deal with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin like a Chicago politician deals with Mafia bosses.

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